My Everything
by Max Jordan
Summary: A Cyberchase fanfic co writen Grand High Idol. Delete starts feeling lonely, and decides to use one of Hacker's new inventions to fix that. There are, of course, unexpected results.
1. Chapter One

MY EVERYTHING  
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol  
Disclaimer: We do not own Cyberchase, nor any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER ONE  
  
Things were pretty tense in the jungle on that day. Hacker, who had recently stolen a precious (and rather powerful, at that) jewel from a nearby ancient temple, had made a break for it the moment that the Cybersquad showed up, and now the two forces were running-Hacker making a break for it, of course, along with the Cybersquad in hot pursuit-along the treetops.  
Hacker finally stopped on a particularly high tree branch, then looked across the area at the kids, who were standing on a branch not too far from his own. Gritting his teeth, Hacker clutched the jewel tighter in his hands, staring at the kids with his usual angry-not to mention way too sure of himself-glare.  
This didn't faze the Cybersquad, however; Motherboard had sent them to retrieve the jewel, and that was exactly what they were going to do. After a few moments of awkward silence, Matt finally stepped forward on his branch.  
"Give it up, Hacker!" the boy commanded, narrowing his eyes, his hands balled into fists.  
Hacker wasn't exactly fazed by this, either; he laughed mockingly and shook his head. "Don't you kiddies have anything better to do?" he asked, shifting the jewel to one hand and placing the other on his side. "I hate to disappoint you, but THE Hacker doesn't give up so easily." He whipped around, in the direction of an adjacent vine, then looked over toward Buzz and Delete. "Come on, boys."  
Buzz and Delete nodded, then grabbed Hacker as he lunged forward, grabbed the vine, and swung off. Jackie joined Matt by stepping forward on the branch, and running toward the one that Hacker had recently been standing on. "Come on, guys," she told the trio. "We're not gonna let Hacker get away with this."  
Matt and Inez exchanged glances, then ran after Jackie as she grabbed another vine, and, with a loud Tarzan yell, swung down after Hacker. Matt, who was closest, jumped forward and grabbed the vine just in time, keeping a tight hold as he and Jackie descended towards the ground. Inez sighed, then looked down at the ground itself, which was, considering the fact that they were near the top of the canopy, pretty high up.  
"Perfect," she sighed, trying her hardest not to look down again. "Just what I needed today."  
Digit apparently felt as frightened as she was; he had a similar fear of heights, but they knew that Motherboard was more important than their psyche. Taking a deep breath, Inez grabbed another vine, Digit following her, then the two swung after Matt, Jackie, and Hacker, often making mental notes on not to loosen her grip or look at the ground. Unfortunately for her, this continued for quite a while, until Hacker finally came to a stop on another tree branch, one without any hanging vines. He halted, then looked behind him at the kids just as they let go of their vine and landed on another branch, closer to the tree trunk (Inez, in particular, liked this better).  
"There's nowhere left to go, Hacker," Matt said, jabbing his finger in Hacker's direction. "Give that jewel back now."  
Hacker laughed again and shook his head. "You must be joking," he responded. "If you want it back so badly, why don't you come and get it, you meddlesome brat?"  
Matt smirked. "Fine, I will," he replied, then with a determined yell he lunged forward and just managed to smack the jewel, successfully knocking it out of Hacker's hand. Buzz managed to catch it before it fell from the branch, saving it from a large and rather deep mud pit below. Hacker, meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to the jewel; he had angrily grabbed the red-haired boy by the back of his sweater and was holding him dangerously close to the edge of the branch.  
"Matt!" Inez yelled in horror, and the two quickly ran forward and grabbed hold of Hacker's arms, trying to get him to release the boy. Digit, seeing that the girls were occupied, decided to focus on getting the jewel back. Glaring at Buzz, he quickly flew over and tried to grab the jewel from Buzz's hands.  
"Hey! Don't you dare!" Buzz snapped at Digit angrily, tugging the jewel back and almost causing Digit to fall forward.  
"Try and stop me!" Digit replied; he then tugged the jewel in his direction, and Buzz responded by tugging back. Delete, who wasn't doing anything at the moment but staring down at the mud pit, finally looked up and, seeing that his older brother was having some difficulty, quickly rushed forward and grabbed onto Buzz's sides, joining in with the tug of war.  
The three were still struggling over the jewel when suddenly a loud cracking sound was heard, like a wooden plank snapping in two. Digit, Buzz and Delete halted immediately, and Matt, Inez and Jackie fell silent and stopped as well. Even Hacker paused for a brief moment.  
"Wuh-oh." Digit finally muttered.  
"Oh geez, please don't tell me what I think that was," Matt said nervously, shaking his head in disbelief. But, upon looking down, he saw that his theory had been confirmed: the branch that they were currently standing on apparently could not support all of them and was slowly breaking under their weight. The girls let go of Hacker, and Digit tried to get the jewel away from Buzz and Delete while they were still shocked, although he was himself.  
"No, no, hold it, hold it," Matt replied, speaking quickly. He then changed his tone to a steadier one. "Nobody move a muscle. If anyone does, the whole thing'll cave in under us."  
For a moment everyone just stood there, staring at Matt, completely still, completely silent. This silence for continued for quite awhile before Inez finally muttered, sounding incredibly nervous: "Uh.Matt, what are we supposed to do now?"  
"Just gimme a minute," Matt replied, sounding just as nervous as Inez did. "I'm trying to think up a plan, here."  
There was another silence before Jackie finally snapped, "Well, think faster, Matt, or we're all going to be flattened!"  
It just about seemed as if things couldn't get any worse for the African-American girl when a large rainforest fly came buzzing along past their branch. Being what flies are-somehow they seek to annoy-the fly approached Jackie and slowly began buzzing around her head, which, needless to say, she was none too happy with.  
"Ew, ew, ew!" Jackie exclaimed. "Get away! Get away!"  
She had just raised her hand to swat the fly when another cracking sound was heard, and the branch gave a violent jolt underneath them, almost causing Matt to fall off again. Inez made a frightened noise and grabbed onto Jackie, while Matt turned his head to look at the two girls.  
"Jackie, I said don't move. Just try to ignore the fly, okay?"  
"Easy for you to say," Jackie scoffed, rolling her eyes. Matt sighed and looked up toward the top of the canopy.  
The fly continued to buzz around Jackie for a few more moments, then tired with her and moved on to Delete, who was still holding onto Buzz and in a rather uncomfortable position. The fly didn't make it any better, for the moment he looked up at the insect, it landed directly on his nose. Delete looked at it, then began to shiver weakly.  
"Don't move, Delete," Digit ordered him, sounding just as nervous as the next person.  
Delete remained silent, but the fly was bothering him, and not only that, its legs were tickling his nose. He whimpered, then finally muttered, "Uh-oh."  
"Oh great, now what?" Buzz sighed, looking over at Delete.  
Delete's left eye twitched, and his mouth became wobbly. "I-I think I'm gonna sneeze," he said nervously.  
Hacker looked over at him and glared angrily. "Don't you dare," he growled at his henchman.  
Delete wanted to listen to Hacker, of course, but the fly wasn't going to move anytime soon, it appeared, and it was becoming more agonizing by the second. "I can't, I can't," he wailed, trying his hardest to remain still. He scrunched up his nose and bit his lower lip, the others watching in tension.  
After a few moments the fly finally finished tormenting him and flew off toward another set of trees. Delete sighed and relaxed, and everyone responded to this by breathing a deep sigh of relief.  
"That was too close," Matt sighed, shaking his head.  
Ironically, just then Delete abruptly sneezed, and, considering the position he was in, ended up losing his balance and falling forward onto Buzz and Digit. Of course, this sudden movement caused the branch to snap entirely, and they plummeted toward the ground. No one had any time to scream before they reached the ground. Thankfully, however, the mud pit had been right over their branch, and thus they all landed headfirst into the mud, burying their bodies entirely in the stuff.  
After a few moments, however, Inez, covered head to foot with mud, finally pulled herself up over the edge of the pit, coughing and sputtering, trying to get the excess mud from her nostrils. She took off her glasses to get the mud off, then shook her head and sighed, looking over at the pit.  
"I know I don't like high places, but I'd rather be on the ground than in it," she said to herself as she tried to get the mud out of her hair. It was then that, upon looking down, she could see a hand, covered entirely in the muck, sticking out from the hole itself. Cocking her head to one side, she slowly crawled over to the edge of the pit and looked down.  
"Matt? Jackie? Is that you?" she asked.  
There was no response. Inez sighed, then finally leaned over, reached down and grabbed the hand, trying to ignore the fact that this was driving the mud further into her skin. She shuddered, then finally, with a loud THWORP sound, pulled the figure from the mud and dragged it to the edge of the pit. Surprisingly enough, however, it had been Delete that she had pulled out, not Matt or Jackie.  
"Delete?" Inez asked in surprise.  
Delete gagged and spit up a mixture of saliva and mud before moaning and looking over toward the side, almost drunkenly. "Thank you, Madeline, the waffles were delicious," he said, sounding rather dazed as he staggered to his feet. Inez rolled her eyes.  
"Oh, brother," she sighed, and was about to turn around and go to try and find Matt, Jackie and Digit when she abruptly slipped, lost her balance, and fell backward. Delete, who still wasn't apparently collected yet, fell over as well, landing directly on top of her. This seemed to prove as a wake up call for him; shaking his head, he came to his senses and looked down.  
When he found that he was lying directly on top of Inez, he blushed, although Inez didn't see it from the fact that he was covered almost head to toe in mud, then stared directly into her eyes, she into his. For a few moments the two remained completely motionless, as Delete stared down at her, his eyes wide, and an undeterminable look on his face. Needless to say, Inez didn't know what the heck he was thinking at that time. All she knew now was that she wanted him off of her.  
Almost aggressively, she shoved him off of her, causing him to fall back into the pit, then quickly got to her feet in time to see Matt and Jackie, who had just emerged from the muck. Matt was looking at Jackie in an almost smug manner, while Jackie was desperately brushing at her clothes, trying to get the mud off.  
"Hey!" Inez called, running over to them. "You guys okay?"  
Jackie shuddered. "Ew, no! I'm gonna have to take at least three showers to get all of this mud off. Oh man, and have you seen what it did to my hair?" She began brushing away at her hair, now, which had miraculously held its shape the entire time that they had been in the mud. Matt snickered.  
"Aw, c'mon, Jacks, it wasn't that bad," he told her, shrugging a shoulder. "At least we got this back." He held up the jewel, which was also covered in mud but otherwise unharmed. Jackie groaned and rolled her eyes.  
"That's easy for you to say, Matt," she replied, placing her hands on her hips. "You were the one that landed on top of me."  
"Where's Didge?" Inez asked, abruptly changing the subject as she scanned the surface of the mud pit, trying to look for any traces of Digit within it. When she found nothing, she sighed and was about to tell Matt and Jackie when another voice called:  
"Hey, guys, up here!"  
The three looked up in time to see Digit, who had snagged on another branch upon descending from the tree. It wasn't anything too hard for him to fix, however. "I'll be with you in a minute," he called down, then he wriggled loose from the branch and fell down the remainder of the tree. Matt reached out and caught him just before he hit the ground.  
"Great, now that we've got the jewel and stopped Hacker, let's get out of here," Jackie sighed. She took out her Squwak pad, pushed a few buttons, then said, "Mother B, we've got the jewel. We need you to portal us through now, please."  
"Good job, cybermates," Motherboard's image replied, before the familiar pink portal opened up, and the four jumped through, Matt, who was still holding the jewel tightly, last in line. As they left, Delete, who had now pulled himself up into a sitting position, stared out into space, more particularly at the spot that Inez had been in before she had jumped through the portal. He was still blushing, and his head felt hot.  
Finally, there was another splorching sound, and Buzz climbed out from the muck, shaking himself to try and get the mud off. He was also constantly spitting and gagging; with his anatomical structure it was rather hard not to get a rather large amount of mud in his mouth and teeth.  
"Yep, just another typical day," Buzz muttered to himself, knocking the side of his head to drain the mud off of his ears. "Those kids get 'da prize, and we end up in 'da mud." He picked some mud from between his teeth and spat again. "'Dis is annoying. Now I'm gonna have to go 'troo a whole 'ting of dental floss again." He looked over and spotted Delete, who was still sitting and staring. "'Ay, Delete!"  
Delete quickly snapped out of his trance, then whipped around to face Buzz. "Uh-oh, oh yeah, what is it?"  
Buzz huffed and rolled his eyes, then said, "You seen 'da boss anywhere around heres?"  
Delete shook his head. "Uh-uh."  
Buzz was about to make a response when Hacker finally pulled himself from the mud, or at least his upper body, anyway, coughing. He paused to look over at Buzz and Delete, then shouted at them, "Well, what are you waiting for, you duncebuckets? Get me out of here!"  
"Alright, boss," Buzz and Delete chorused; they then each grabbed Hacker's arms and managed to pull him loose. Hacker growled under his breath, then brushed the mud off of his cape and, whipping around angrily, began to storm toward the direction of the Grim Wreaker.  
* * *  
Once they were back in the Northern Frontier, Hacker's real rage began. He stormed into the main control room, shouting angrily and startling both Buzz and Delete. "This is despicable! I don't BELIEVE this! Once again, those brats have shown up where they're not wanted and spoil EVERYTHING!" He slammed his fist down on the table, this time startling Delete, who had had his elbows propped up against it at the time.  
Hacker straightened up, this time slightly more calm, but only by a little. "I had the perfect power source for my Recharger Chair in my hand. And as long as Motherboard keeps sending those brats and their tin turkey after me, I'll never get anything done!"  
He halted a minute, then stared straight ahead for a few moments, as if getting an idea. He finally broke out into a rather sly grin. "That could be it," he muttered to himself, before turning to face Buzz and Delete. "You two," he ordered, pointing at them, "I have some work to do in my lab. Go get yourselves cleaned off, for Heaven's sakes-" He looked disapprovingly at Buzz, who was still covered with the now dried mud-"And stay out of my way, for once."  
He then turned around and walked down one of the Grim Wreaker's hallways. Buzz sighed, then muttered "Fine by me" and headed off in the direction of the Grim Wreaker's bathroom to get the mud off of himself; this leaving Delete entirely alone in the main control room.  
Delete looked around, then sighed depressively and put his head in his hands. He had never realized before how big and empty this place could be, especially now that Hacker and Buzz were gone. Unlike either of them, he was very social and very romantic, thus making him lonely. Thinking of Inez earlier that day, he hung his head, then his eyes teared up for a moment. However, he quickly stopped himself.  
No, Delete, he scolded himself, wiping the tears that had escaped from his eyes anyway off with the back of his shirtsleeve. You don't have to let it come to this. Just.take a walk around the place. Try and clear this from your head. You'll feel much better, trust me.  
Sighing again, he got up from the chair and began wandering the halls, sometimes pausing to look in on the rooms that the doors in the sides led to, lost in thought. He was at the end of one hallway and was just about to consider going over to the bathroom to see how Buzz was doing when he heard Hacker's laughter.and it sounded rather close.  
Curious, he followed the sound until he finally stopped at the door to Hacker's lab. Being careful not to let his boss see him, he peeked in through the doorway and looked in on what he was doing. He couldn't see everything clearly due to the fact that Hacker was standing in front of what he was making, but Delete could see that it was an odd-looking object that paid homage to an egg of some sort. He knew that he shouldn't, but he crouched down and listened in on Hacker anyway.  
"As long as those kids get in my way, I'll never get anywhere," he heard Hacker say to himself. "But, if they're distracted elsewhere, they can't do anything to stop me." He paused for a few moments to do something- Delete wasn't sure what-to the egg, then continued. "Perfect. I'll make more Buzz and Deletes, and send them to run amuck in Control Central. Those kids will be so busy containing the chaos that they won't be able to get in my way." He laughed triumphantly, then set his tools down.  
"Now, I just need a few more parts, and it'll be ready," he muttered to himself again, and Delete quickly scrunched up against the wall as Hacker left the room to get some more parts. Thankfully Hacker didn't notice him in the least, and after he had gone Delete withdrew himself from the wall, exhaled, then looked into the room again.  
Cautiously looking around for any signs of Hacker, he walked into the room and went over to the table where the egg was currently lying. He stared at it for a few moments, wondering what Hacker had meant by "make more".  
"Make more?" Delete repeated to himself, then, as he stared down at the egg, he smiled broadly and a glint appeared in his eye, as if he were getting an idea. 


	2. Chapter Two

MY EVERYTHING  
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol  
  
CHAPTER TWO  
  
Awhile later Delete had left Hacker's lab and, after cleaning the mud from himself after Buzz had finished, had returned to his room and was now pacing around, thinking about what he had seen and heard earlier in the lab. He had all the time to think to himself; Buzz had gone into the kitchen to get something to eat (obviously), and Hacker was probably still busy in his lab working on that egg.  
He wanted that egg badly, but he appeared lost in his train of thought. As he continued pacing, he spoke out loud to himself.mainly because it made him feel less lonely, for one thing, and he felt better that way. It also helped him to think just a little faster than he did when he wasn't talking.  
"The boss is making an egg that can make more of Buzz an' me," he said to himself, "but what if it can make other people too, new people?" He sighed and turned around, beginning to pace to the other end of the room. "This place gets so lonely.but if there was somebody else here, I'd have somebody to talk to." He sighed and shook his head. "But who? Who do I know that I would want to sit and talk to?"  
He then abruptly stopped pacing and got lost in his thoughts once again, back to the scene where he had landed on top of Inez. He giggled to himself and sighed romantically, clasping his hands together at remembering that moment. That was probably the closest to Inez that he'd gotten, besides the time that he had trapped the kids in their first mission. He didn't know her very well then, but now that he did.  
"Yeah, Inez is nice," Delete finally decided. "She'd be wonderful to talk to." He sat down on his bed and crossed his legs, staring down at the floor for a few more moments. "But if I'm gonna make another Inez, I'm gonna need to get some of Inez.but how?" He got up from his bed, hand to his mouth, deep in thought, as he walked out of his room and down the hallway.  
He didn't exactly even know where he was going until he looked up and spotted an open doorway. Curious, he crept over to it, then, checking to make sure that Hacker wasn't in the room at the moment, walked inside and stood in the doorway. It was a narrow room, covered in shelves; the things occupying them appeared to be various broken materials and objects. Delete looked around some more, and the sudden memory of this room came to mind. This was the room where Hacker stored his failed inventions, or the inventions that he had made but had never put to use.  
Too curious of what might have been in the room since he last stopped in it (which was when he was about twelve or so), he began to walk down the corridor, looking at the various items that aligned the walls. Some of them he found rather disturbing, some he cringed at, and yet some of them he thought appeared very cute (he stopped momentarily to pat the head of an offline robot dog). He finally stopped when something caught his eye-on the lower shelf he spotted a dusty velvet pillow.and there was something atop it.  
Coming a few steps closer, he could now see that the small object seated on the pillow was a thumbnail-sized robot that paid a similar resemblance to a mosquito. Next to it, covered in dust as well as anything else, was a small remote control. Trying to remember what Hacker had created this for, he tapped his head a few times to bring himself to think.  
Then he remembered. Hacker had built it originally to drain the Sensible Flats reservoir of water, then charge money for it to sell it back to the citizens of Sensible Flats. It hadn't worked, though, mainly because Hacker didn't have enough of these things to actually suck the reservoir dry.  
That was when an idea suddenly sprung into Delete's head. Continuing to think of it for fear of losing it again-he tended to forget things on a regular basis-he quickly snatched up the mosquito, along with the remote, and, stuffing it inside his shirt, quickly ran back to his room. Looking around to make sure that Buzz wasn't in yet, he sighed in relief, then slowly walked in and gently removed the remote and the mosquito from his shirt.  
Looking it over, taking care not to damage it too severely, he found that the mosquito's remote control system had a small monitor in the middle of it, much like a radar, so that the holder could determine what the bug saw through its artificial eyes. Thinking that he should give it a test run- see if it still worked after all this time-he switched the device on, and the creature immediately hummed to life.  
Delete grinned, then shifted the control upward, and the bug obeyed, sending itself up into the air a few feet. Then shifting the controls to left and right, he found that he could control it himself with little trouble and much ease. He smiled at uncovering this fact.  
"Perfect," he told himself. "Now I just gotta wait for the boss to take us somewhere, and the kids show up. Then I can finally get what I want." He stopped himself. "Gee, that sounded a little harsh."  
He shook his head, then stuffed the mosquito and remote back into his shirt just as, ironically enough, Hacker's voice was heard from the main control room-how'd he get back in there so fast? Delete guessed that he must've finished working on his egg or whatever that thing was.  
"Buzz, Delete, get out here NOW!" Hacker shouted into the hallway. Delete smiled to himself, and his eyes narrowed as he took on a rather smug expression.  
"Bingo," he muttered to himself; he then turned around and ran toward the direction of the main control room. Buzz was already there; he was licking the excess sugar from his fingers, and Hacker was standing in front of the table, his arms crossed. Hoping that Hacker didn't notice that he had swiped his device, Delete halted in front of him and innocently placed his hands behind his back.  
"Good, it's about time you duncebuckets got here," he sneered, before turning around and heading toward the Grim Wreaker's control panels. "Come on, we've got some shopping to do."  
"Oh, can we pick up a pizza too?" Buzz asked hopefully as Hacker took his seat in his Recharger Chair.  
Hacker growled at him. "Not that kind of shopping, you delinquent duncebucket, now come on." He pressed the ignition button, then took the controls in his hands. "You'll get the plan when we arrive at our destination."  
* * *  
The "destination" soon enough proved to be R-Fair City. The Grim Wreaker landed outside the main amusement park area, in one of the nearby parking lots, then Hacker, Buzz and Delete walked out and headed in the direction of the amusement park. Hacker stopped them right behind a games booth.  
"Now, my clueless cronies, there are some things that I need to get, and I need a distraction. You two have my full permission to annoy, disturb, and in other words cause a total disruption in a different area during the time I get them. Understand?" He raised an eyebrow.  
Buzz laughed. "No sweat, boss, annoyin' is what we do best."  
"You can say that again," Hacker muttered to himself, rolling his eyes. Buzz didn't catch what he was saying, fortunately, and instead walked past him and into the amusement park itself.  
"Come on, Dee-Dee, let's go," the stocky robot called to his little brother. Delete nodded obediently, then ran off after Buzz into a crowd of cyberspacian visitors. Hacker grinned, then rubbed his hands together, turned to the side, and walked off into the shadows.  
By the time Buzz and Delete had pushed through the crowd and had arrived in the center of the midway, it was thoroughly crowded with tourists. Buzz shook his head, then opened the bag of snacks that he had swiped from a nearby booth earlier and stuffed a handful into his mouth. "Man, look at all 'dese guys. Can you believe 'dat?" He swallowed. "It should be pretty easy to cause a distraction with 'dis many people around.problem is, where should we start?"  
It was then that Buzz spotted the R-Fair City roller coaster, one of the biggest rides in the area, and of course all of the thrill-seeking tourists were lined up to ride it. Getting an idea, Buzz grinned cockily, then began to run in the direction of the roller coaster's main entrance.  
"Come on, Deeds, time for a roller coaster ride," he said to his little brother as Delete wearily followed him, pushing his way past a walking couple and nearly hitting a rather obese man in the process.  
"Great, I love roller coasters," Delete replied, grinning weakly and trying his best not to sound too nervous. In truth he didn't like thrill rides-he couldn't get on a Ferris Wheel, even, without screaming or hurling.much to Buzz's embarrassment on that day. But Buzz was a natural thrill-seeker at work, and if Buzz wanted to do it, that usually meant he had to as well.  
Sighing, he followed Buzz as the two pushed past everyone in the line, causing quite a few yells and curses from the adults and a few screeches and whines from the kids. Content that they were causing such an uproar, Buzz smirked and shoved past the remainder of the line, then jumped up onto the platform, Delete following. Running over to the controls and shoving the man at them aside, Buzz grabbed the main control lever and jabbed his finger in the direction of the coaster.  
"Get in, Delete," he ordered.  
Delete sighed, looked at the coaster cars, gulped, then jumped in. Buzz grinned, then leapt up and slammed his feet down on the control lever full force, causing it to snap. The coaster cars began to move up toward the first hill, and Buzz quickly ran over and leapt into the car beside Delete.  
As soon as they went over the first hill, the coaster went full speed, carrying Buzz, Delete, and a few other unsuspecting bystanders who had merely come for a ride along the track, over the hills, veering over the constant, sudden curves.Buzz was cheering in amusement, but Delete was screaming at the top of his lungs, covering his eyes, trying to avoid the horrible nausea he felt every time they hit a curve. Oh well, he thought to himself as he brought one hand to his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting, Think of it this way. At least the kids are gonna show up soon enough.  
Almost as if on cue, the pink portal opened just near the center of the midway, and the kids and Digit jumped out, this time landing neatly on the ground instead of landing on top of each other, like they normally did. Quickly regaining his balance, Matt straightened his sweater, then looked at the other three.  
"Did Motherboard say what was wrong?" he asked, confused.  
Inez shook her head. "No," she replied, "She just said to get to the midway at R-Fair City, and fast." She looked around at the shouting and gaping tourists around her, then sighed. "But what's going on here?"  
Jackie looked up toward the direction of the roller coaster, the direction that the tourists were currently looking in, then gasped. "Oh man, I think I found the problem," she exclaimed; then, sure that she had caught Matt, Inez and Digit's attention, pointed up at one of the coaster's hills. "Look!"  
Matt, Digit and Inez looked up, then spotted the coaster as it went over the hill and plummeted toward another curve, catching a glimpse of Buzz and Delete in the process. Matt glared. "Figures.we hear about trouble, and five minutes later, guess who we find?"  
"Never mind that, they have to be stopped!" Jackie exclaimed, she then pushed through the tourists, trying to state her apologies for knocking them aside in the process, Matt and Inez trailing behind her, with Digit in flight over their heads. Upon reaching the front of the coaster, Inez and Digit ran over to help the stunned coaster operator to his feet, while Matt and Jackie eyed the coaster's lever, which, of course, was still broken.  
"Oh, well this is just great," Jackie scoffed, staring down at the lever. "Now what?"  
Matt looked up in the direction of the coaster again, then narrowed one eye, as if in thought. Finally he looked over at the others and said, "Jackie, Digit, find something to pull that lever with. I'll go handle those two." He pointed up toward Buzz and Delete, who were just coming down the last hill on the ride-that is, if the lever had actually been pulled at the time. As the coaster passed by them, even though it was going at least sixty miles per hour, Matt ran aside it and leapt into the last empty car.  
"Matt!" Inez exclaimed as the coaster passed her. "Are you nuts!"  
Without even thinking of what she was doing at the time, Inez ran behind the coaster and took a flying leap into the last car just as it started up the beginning of the hill again, this time going much slower, thank goodness. Jackie sighed as she watched the coaster head upward again, then shook her head.  
"Why can't those two cause trouble at an ice skating rink?" she sighed, then turned to Digit. "Come on, Didge, we need to find something to shut off the lever before Matt goes and hurts himself."  
"Well, that's Matt for ya," Digit replied, shrugging. "But yeah, let's go find something to fix the lever before anything serious happens."  
Jackie nodded, and the two began searching for something, anything, to fix the lever and possibly shut off the coaster.which was currently taking its descent on the second hill. Buzz, pausing in his thrilled screaming to look behind him, spotted Matt at once, then narrowed his eyes and turned around, Delete still shrieking at the top of his lungs beside him, his hands clasped to his face very much like Home Alone. The stocky robot ignored him, however.  
"Well, well, well," he smirked, putting one foot on the top seat of his coaster car. Of course, the roller coaster took a sharp turn at this point, and Buzz almost fell over, but he didn't seem to care. "Care for a ride, kids?"  
"Not funny, Buzz," Matt replied angrily, bracing himself against the wind. "Now get over here before I make you."  
Buzz scoffed and crossed his arms. "Fat chance."  
Matt smirked, then, being what he was, replied sassily, "Yeah, well, that's easy for someone like you to say."  
Buzz could be ignorant at times, but he knew when he was being insulted. Angrily gritting his teeth, he balled his hands into tight fists, but, knowing that he couldn't jump at the boy while they were still on the turn area, instead snatched up the bag of snacks he had from the bottom of the coaster and began throwing them at Matt. Inez sighed and rolled her eyes, then began to slowly and steadily climb toward their spot on the coaster.  
Delete, who had previously been screaming but had stopped when he had heard Matt's voice, now turned around in time to see Inez climbing toward Matt on the coaster. His expression of nausea and dread now turning to one of happiness, he quickly turned around, then reached into his shirt and pulled out the mosquito, along with the controls.  
"Perfect," he muttered to himself, knowing that no one else could possibly hear him over the roar of the wind. He gently switched the robot on, then took the controls in one hand, holding the bug with the other. "Now, let's do this."  
They had come to the top of the second hill now, and were now going straight again. Buzz, having run out of snacks, for one thing, and now that he knew that he was within perfect leaping range he could actually carry out what he had meant to do in the first place. Emitting an angry screech, he leapt forward, jumping on Matt. Matt fell backward into the coaster, and the two began wrestling with each other, yelping, screaming, cursing (Buzz, anyway). This left all three of them-Inez included-fully distracted, so it was easy for Delete to manage to get the bug behind her, despite how quickly they were speeding along the roller coaster's track.  
Buzz put up a pretty good fight with the boy, but Matt, being two feet taller and twenty pounds heavier, had the advantage in this case. Angrily, he grabbed hold of Buzz just as he was about to kick Matt, then the redhead slammed him down to the bottom of the coaster, pinning him down by both arms. Buzz growled and struggled, but Matt, panting harshly, refused to let go of him. Inez was still watching, wondering what Matt was to do, when the robot finally managed to land on the back of her neck. Grinning, Delete pressed the button in the center.  
At this Inez suddenly let out a shriek of pain, then grabbed the back of her neck with both hands, thus allowing her to lose her grip and almost fall off the side of the coaster. In a panic, she successfully managed to grab one of the bars just as she had begun her descent to the ground below.  
"Inez!" Matt cried; he then released his grip on Buzz and leapt to grab her, before she let go of the bar entirely. The mosquito, having finished taking its sample of her blood, then came back to Delete, and he quickly caught it and stuffed it and the remote back into his shirt before anyone came to notice.  
It was then that two things happened: the roller coaster finally screeched to a halt, for one thing, and the Grim Wreaker flew overhead just after that. Apparently Hacker had finished his "shopping" and was now coming back to collect his two henchmen. Buzz, getting up from the bottom of the coaster and gingerly rubbing at his bruises, looked up, then jumped to the edge of the coaster.  
"Come on, Deeds, time to go," he told his little brother. Delete nodded, then clambered onto the edge after him, as the Grim Wreaker lowered its tube and sucked the two robots up, before shooting off back into cyberspace. Matt watched them as they left, then groaned in frustration.  
"Man, first a mud pit and now this," he sighed, shaking his head. "Talk about one of those days."  
"Matt!" Inez shouted; she was still dangling from the bar of the roller coaster, Matt holding tightly onto her pink shirtsleeve. "Do you mind?"  
"Oh," Matt replied, finally coming to his senses and looking down at her. He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that."  
Inez sighed angrily, then allowed Matt to pull her up onto the coaster, just as Digit flew up as so to retrieve them both, while the coaster operator resumed his position and allowed the two to come down a few seconds later.  
* * *  
Back at the Northern Frontier, after the Grim Wreaker had been successfully parked, Hacker came into the main control room, laughing triumphantly. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "Those Cyber-brats were too busy to stop me. Now I can finish my invention, and when that's done I'll finally be rid of those brats for good!"  
He then turned around and went back down the hallway-to his workshop, no doubt. Buzz, meanwhile, was still tending the bruises Matt had given him, and decided to go to the kitchen for some ice and perhaps a snack. Delete, knowing what he had to do, placed his hand to his shirt, sighed, then snuck off after Hacker, taking care not to make any noise in the process.  
He stopped outside the door, in his usual spot, watching Hacker as he continued his process on the egg. All the time Delete was clutching his hand to his shirt, the area where the mosquito was hidden, every now and then grinning and sighing romantically, for what seemed like hours. Finally, Hacker threw his tools down on the table and grinned in satisfaction at what lay before him.  
"Finally, it's completed," he said to himself, sounding rather pleased with his accomplishment. "Come tomorrow, now, those kids won't stand a chance. Cyberspace will finally be mine, and there's nothing that those meddlesome moppets can do about it."  
He then began to head toward the doorway. Delete had to press against the wall again to avoid being seen as Hacker walked away, in a thoroughly smug mood. Delete sighed, then exhaled again and removed himself from the wall, looking in through the doorway at the egg in the process.  
Looking around cautiously some more, he smiled, then walked into the lab, stopping in front of the table. Staring down at the egg for a few moments, he finally sighed, then wrapped his arms around it and gently picked it up. It was lighter than he thought; he looked at it, then, even though he hadn't completed the process just yet, hugged it lovingly to his chest.  
"The boss may need you, but I need you more," he said to the egg, before turning around and quickly running out of the lab. Once he was in the hallway, he went down the opposite end of the hallway, which, considering the fact that these hallways were rarely explored, was still dark. He swallowed, he was just a tad afraid of the dark, then walked carefully down the hallway and finally entered the storage area.  
This was where they stored a few supplies, along with other various, discarded items from eons ago. It was rare when anyone went down here to get something, thus he knew that this was a good place to conceal it. Looking around some more, he hugged the egg tighter, then bolted off and ducked down into a dark, rather large space between two absurdly large box crates.  
"Yeah, this is a good spot," he told himself as he gently set the egg down on the tiled floor. "No one'll ever find it here.hopefully."  
Looking over the egg, he finally found a button on the side. Wondering what this did, he reached out and pushed it, and, much to his surprise, one of the sides opened up. Inside it he could make out a few tubes, sockets, and various wires, along with a rather small computer screen. Now, as the egg opened, green letters flashed across the computer's monitor:  
Insert DNA sample.  
Delete nodded, then took the mosquito out from underneath his coat for seemingly the last time, then fiddled around with it, trying to figure out how it opened. As he was toying with it, he didn't notice that one of the seams on his shirtsleeve was coming loose. When he had seemingly gotten the mosquito open, he was about to remove the blood sample when it snapped shut onto the ripped seam of his shirt, slicing his wrist in the process.  
It wasn't a bad cut, but it was a cut nonetheless. Delete yipped, then cursed under his breath and tried to get the mosquito off of his shirt. What he didn't notice was that the cut was currently beginning to lightly bleed, and as he managed to tear the mosquito from his seam a drop of it had fallen into the exposed side, mixing itself in with Inez's.  
He sighed, then dumped the blood sample into the egg and pushed the button again. The egg closed shut, as the computer monitor flashed a few more words:  
Scanning.DNA sample accepting.commence construction.  
Delete gently sucked the wound on his wrist to rid it of the blood, then sat back against one of the crates, looking at the egg, which had remained completely silent.and still, now that the sample had been accepted. Delete didn't know what to think of this. Would it go through, or would it fail? He hoped that the latter wasn't what was to happen.  
He yawned, then finally curled up next to the egg and quietly fell asleep, wondering what he would find when he woke up in the morning. 


	3. Chapter Three

MY EVERYTHING  
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol  
  
CHAPTER THREE  
  
A few moments later Delete finally stirred. Lazily opening one eye, he suddenly bolted upright, then looked around him in complete shock, not to mention confusion. He was no longer lying on the floor in the storage room next to the egg anymore; instead he was lying next to a tree, and a rather large one, at that.  
"Huh?" Delete said to himself as he looked around. "What's goin' on here? Where am I? Where's my egg?"  
After some inspection of the area, he found himself to be in a forest- the exact same forest, in fact, that he and Buzz had gone to in order to find George. Wondering how in cyberspace he managed to end up here, he slowly got to his knees, then looked around some more and was about to get up and head off toward the trees to find if someone had just found him and thrown him out of the Wreaker.  
That was when he heard a rather odd, far-off sound. Stopping, he listened for the noise again, and once more it came to him. It was low and continuous, as if something-or someone-was humming. Too curious to sit there any longer, he slowly got to his feet and walked off in the direction of the noise, taking cautious steps as so to not startle or offend the thing making the noise.  
As soon as he turned the corner, he halted, drew back, then clapped his hands to his mouth and gasped in shock at what he was seeing. He had walked into a small clearing, complete with a very clean-looking pond in the center, and sitting by the pond, in a bright white maiden's dress and a flower wreath and humming absentmindedly to herself, was Inez.  
When Delete saw that she didn't notice him, he relaxed, then took a few steps closer to where the girl was sitting. She had now picked a daisy from the ground and was pulling the petals off it gently, tossing them into the water and continuing her humming. Delete swallowed hard, then took another step forward and said, his voice sounding rather squeaky, "Inez?"  
Inez stopped pulling the petals off of the flower and looked up in Delete's direction. As soon as she spotted the robot, instead of getting up or demanding what he was doing here, she instead smiled warmly, a smile that made Delete blush just a little.  
"Delete, it's about time you got here," she told him, not sounding the least bit surprised to see him. "Where have you been? I've been waiting for hours."  
Delete was even more confused now, if that was even possible. Inez had never asked him to wait for her near the forest.or had she? He didn't remember correctly.then again, he hardly remembered anything as it was. "Well, you see, I was just.um." He stopped, unable to think of anything to say. His palms were getting sweaty and he was pretty sure that his knees were beginning to knock together.  
Inez sighed, then motioned him toward her. "Never mind that, it doesn't matter, just come sit down." She smiled again, but Delete was still nervous and still refused to move. "Just come on. Come sit down, baby."  
Upon being called this pet name a nervous giggle escaped Delete's throat, and his cheeks were now entirely blue. Deciding that if this was what Inez had in mind, he decided that it would be just fine to do it. After all, Hacker and Buzz weren't here to stop him, were they?  
"Uh, fine," he said, his voice sounding carried away, then he staggered over to where Inez was and sat down a few feet away from her. Inez looked at him, grinned, then scooted over to him, to the point where their shoulders were just an inch from touching. Delete looked out at the pond, his eyes huge, his cheeks turning a deeper shade, and perspiration beginning to trickle down the side of his head. He was feeling hotter and more nervous by the moment, but he had no idea what to do. He just prayed that he wouldn't get to the point where he actually might wet himself.  
Inez didn't seem to notice his reaction, and instead looked out at the pond, still smiling. She picked up the stem of the daisy that she had been plucking at, then tossed it out onto the shimmering water, where it made a few small ripples before floating off slowly into the reeds.  
"It's such a nice day, isn't it?" she asked him as she watched a few birds fly over their heads and disappear into some trees nearby. Delete swallowed hard; although he was sweating like mad his throat seemed to have run dry.  
"Yeah, uh, yeah, it sure is," he replied, still shivering violently. He wondered if this ever happened between anyone else he knew.he'd never seen Hacker do this with Wicked before. Then again, he and Wicked didn't exactly have the best relationship, either.  
Inez, meanwhile, appeared to be ignoring him, still, and she was now looking at a cluster of yellow flowers growing nearby. Choosing the one nearest her, she picked it, then held it in her hand, looking out at the pond again. She moved her other hand closer to Delete's, but Delete, still highly nervous, quickly drew his away.  
Inez still seemed to be ignoring his nervous gestures; she was now looking down at the yellow flower in her hand. "Don't you just wish you could spend every day like this, hmm?"  
Delete tried to settle it like an adult and speak his answer, but his answer lodged in his throat, and it seemed impossible for him to get it out. Instead he just sighed. Inez reached over, then brought one hand against his cheek to steady him and, with the other, placed the flower on his head, near his left antenna. Delete's head was spinning, and he was blushing so hard by now that his entire head had turned a different shade of teal.  
Inez then lay back against a small sapling growing nearby, then quietly started humming her song again. Delete, now close to melting, finally sighed romantically and snuggled up against her side, placing his head on her lap. Inez didn't say a word; instead she moved one of her hands up against the side of his head and slowly began stroking it.  
Delete sighed, then, forgetting everything else, slowly closed his eyes, warmly smiling, not wanting this to end.  
He sighed again, then gently replied, "Inez, I love you." and finally opened his eyes. Abruptly looking around, he could now see that he was no longer near the pond, he was back in the storage room, between the two crates. He was no longer lying against Inez, he was lying against the egg. Looking at it groggily, he could tell that it was much bigger than when he had seen it last time.in fact, it appeared to have doubled in size.  
Delete bolted upright, then looked down at the egg in shock. But his expression of shock quickly turned to one of joy. "Oh my gosh," he exclaimed, one hand to the side of his face, "this means that it must actually be working!"  
He smiled, then nuzzled against it again and gently rubbed its surface with one hand, sighing to himself. The whole incident with Inez, that whole romantic moment he had shared.it must've been a dream. It had to. There was no possible way something like that could be true. At least, not for long in his case.  
"Soon, it won't be a dream anymore," he sighed, his cheek against the side of the egg.  
Unfortunately, this moment was abruptly interrupted by a scream, long and loud, tearing through the entire base. Delete's eyes widened, and he bolted upright, he had heard this scream many times before. And whenever he heard it, it usually didn't mean anything good in his case.  
"Uh oh," he squeaked, and, knowing that the boss would want him, gave the egg one last pat before running out from between the crates, toward the source of the scream. As he exited the storage room and began to head for the entrance to Hacker's lab, he didn't look where he was going and thus smashed directly into Buzz in the process.  
"OOWW!" Buzz complained, rubbing his head where it had hit Delete's torso. He then focused his attention on the entrance to the lab. "What was 'dat, do ya think?"  
Delete shook his head nervously. "I dunno, Buzzie," he replied; he then jabbed his finger in the direction of the lab. "But it sounded like it came from in there."  
Buzz was about to speak a response when a box came flying out the door, and the two yelped in surprise and darted out of the way as a few more appliances followed it. The two robots exchanged glances, then finally removed their hands from their head and cautiously peeked around the edge of the door, Delete resting his hands atop Buzz's head.  
At first they were in complete shock, for Hacker's originally neat and organized lab was now torn entirely apart, tools there, other appliances scattered on the floor, some of the smaller lab tables overturned, and the drawers pulled out of the counters. Hacker was in the midst of the debris, digging through yet another drawer, muttering to himself absentmindedly and tossing things behind him without even bothering to look at what they were. The two cringed as a glass tube shattered behind him.  
"No, it can't be, it has to be here somewhere," Hacker muttered to himself as he pulled a few more things out of the drawer, sounding highly panicked. "It can't have just gotten up and rolled away.even though it's thoroughly capable of rolling.blast it!" He heaved the drawer at one of the walls and yanked out another one.  
Buzz shook his head nervously. "Ho boy, 'da boss is talkin' to himself.'dat cannot be a good sign." He looked up at Delete. "And would you mind getting your hands of my head?!"  
Delete, much too nervous to talk, gulped and removed his hands from Buzz's head. Buzz sighed, then looked into the lab and rather reluctantly ordered, "Come on, Deeds, let's go."  
With Buzz leading the way, the two quickly ran into the room, stepping over the scattered debris, then ducked as another array of tools and beakers went soaring over their heads. Buzz looked behind him at the mess, then quickly walked up to Hacker, who was now under the desk, searching through a pile of junk that he had thrown under there.  
"Boss, what 'da heck are you doin'?" Buzz demanded, holding out his hands in shock. "You're completely tearin' 'da whole place apart."  
Hacker stopped searching and whipped around, nearly hitting his head on the desk in the process, an enraged look on his face. Buzz swallowed and backed up a few steps; both he and Delete alike never liked to see that look on their boss's face. Whenever he did, it usually meant trouble.  
"You dim-bulb duncebuckets, it's GONE!" he shrieked at them in rage. Delete, knowing exactly what he was referring to, felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, but tried to cover it up for fear of Hacker possibly finding out.  
"Um, what's gone, boss?" he asked, trying to sound curious.  
Hacker gritted his teeth. "My latest invention, the one that would have finally allowed me to put those pint-sized pests in their place," he snapped at him; he then jabbed his finger in the direction of the table the egg had once been sitting on. "It was right here last night. I came in this morning to admire it, and it was gone."  
Buzz, afraid that Hacker might start another yelling fit, was drumming his fingers together nervously, quickly trying to think of a way to calm his boss down. Finally, he looked at Hacker and said, trying to sound innocent and placing his hands behind his back, "Uh, gee boss, can't you just make another one?"  
Hacker snarled at him, and Buzz grinned sheepishly and backed up a few more steps. "No, you walking pile of spare parts, I can't. I created that device straight out of my head, thus I didn't have a chance to write up the blueprints." He took a deep breath, then continued, sounding a little more calm than he had before, "And even if I did, it wouldn't matter a night. I was only able to find ONE copy of a vital component yesterday; I don't have any more."  
The two robots stared at him blankly, unsure of what to say; then Hacker finally glared at them. "Well, what are you two standing there for?! Start searching!"  
"Searching for what, boss?" Delete asked, still trying his hardest to sound completely clueless. He suddenly felt very sick to his stomach after what he had heard his boss say.  
"What do you think!" Hacker snapped. "My invention, you duncebucket! It has to be here somewhere. I don't care if you have to turn this whole base AND the Grim Wreaker upside down, just find it, and NOW!"  
Buzz quickly saluted, then said nervously, his speech rather quickened, "Right, boss, we'll get on it right now. Don't worry about it."  
He then turned around and ran off, glad to have some space between himself and his furious boss. Delete looked after him, then turned around and followed, placing both hands on his stomach in the process. He felt very sick now, and he wondered if he should go and take some aspirin for it before it got any worse. By the time he reached Buzz he had doubled over.  
Buzz looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. "You okay, Dee-Dee?" he asked in concern.  
Delete looked at him, then smiled weakly, not wanting to tell Buzz about the egg for the time being. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just.fine," he replied, his voice shaking.  
* * *  
For the next few hours the search went by, as all of them-Hacker, Buzz, and Delete-scoured the base, dumping out drawers, emptying closets, tossing things on the floor, hitting their heads on tables and desks, and of course making one of the biggest messes in possibly all of Cyberspacian history. Buzz, despite the fact that he hated having to search the whole ship, was very pleased that he could completely trash a room and not have to clean it up afterward-it reminded him of his old college days, he had said. Delete would've enjoyed it too, if he didn't keep reminding himself of what the mess would eventually lead to.  
He had been frightened that Hacker might have made them start at the south end of the base, but thankfully he had made them start at the north end. But after a few hours and lots of throwing, tossing, and breaking, they had managed to get a fourth of the search done. It was only a matter of time, he knew, before they would eventually reach the end of the base- along with the storage room.  
The search continued for a full day and night, and all the time they tore apart the base the egg grew steadily larger. By the next morning, the egg had reached the size of a rather large beach ball.  
Buzz and Delete, meanwhile, had become exhausted and were sprawled out on their backs in the main control room, looking sleep-deprived, haggard, and thoroughly exhausted from their night of searching. Since everything-including the chairs-had been littered with all types of papers, tools, and other various junkets, the two had resorted to lying on the table and the panel. They had been resting for only a few moments when Hacker stormed in.  
"What are you two doing, just laying around?" Hacker snapped at them, his hands at his sides. "You're supposed to be looking for my invention, you dimwitted duncebuckets!"  
"But boss, we're tired, an' we've been lookin' all night," Delete whined.  
Although this was a very bad thing to say to Hacker at the time, Delete was getting very nervous and very desperate about the egg. He had to stall. Anything to give himself time to think on how he should get the egg out of the base without Hacker noticing.but, judging by how obsessive Hacker was acting about it now, the prospects were fairly dismal.  
"No excuses," Hacker told them angrily. "Now get up, and get to work. You're not going to stop until you find that egg, you hear?" He turned around and stormed off.  
Buzz moaned, then shakily got to his feet. "Dis is moider!" he whined, jumping down from the table; he then sighed heavily and began to head toward one of the hallways. "Come on, Dee-Dee, let's go. Let's try lookin' in our room now."  
"But Buzzie, didn't we already look in our room?" Delete sighed, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes.  
"Yeah, we did," Buzz replied, his voice sounding very groggy at this time. "But we're gonna look again. Let's start by lookin' in our beds."  
Delete stared at him a moment, unsure of what he was getting at, then it finally clicked into place. Grinning, he nodded his head. "Oh, yeah, that's a good idea, Buzzy. We might have missed something the first time.so let's go look."  
Buzz smirked, then walked off toward the hallway, while Delete simply stood there. He waited until Buzz was completely gone, then he sighed in relief. "Heh, who knew Buzz's laziness would come in handy some day?" he giggled to himself.  
It was then that Buzz came back through the doorway, then looked at him, still as groggy as he had been before. "You say somethin'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.  
Delete jerked up in surprise, then quickly shook his head. "Uh, no, nothing, Buzz. I didn't say anything. Now let's go search in our beds for a couple of hours." He flashed his older brother a trusting smile.  
"Now you're talkin', heh-heh," Buzz replied, crossing his arms. "Let's go."  
* * *  
Meanwhile, in the real world, Matt, Jackie and Inez were gathered around a table in a pizza parlor, sitting in a booth near the corner of the store. They had been quite grateful for the time off that Hacker's recent show of inactivity had provided, and now they had decided to take full advantage of it by going on a friendly outing. Inez sighed, then crossed her legs and leaned back against her booth, thoroughly content.  
"Oh, boy, do I love a good day off," she told the others. "I feel great-in fact, I feel ten times better than I did before that incident in the jungle.and the coaster." She frowned at uncovering that memory again. Jackie looked at her, then scowled.  
"I don't, that mud pit was the most disgusting thing that ever had to happen to me in my life," she told them angrily. "Bits of mud are still falling out of my hair every time I brush it. Oh, man!" She plopped her elbows against the table.  
Matt sighed and looked up toward the ceiling of the parlor before turning his attention back on the two girls. "Whatever," he told them. "Now can we just order already? I'm starving. How about we get the supreme?"  
Jackie made a face. "Ew, no way, Matt," she replied, sounding disgusted. "You know full well I don't eat half the stuff that's on that thing."  
Matt rolled his eyes, then placed one arm on the table. "Not this again," he sighed. "Come on, Jacks, we never get any meat on our pizza. We haven't had meat once. I'm starting to feel like a rabbit or something." He brushed his red hair out of his face. "Can't we just order pepperoni for a change?"  
"Just why are you so determined to get me to eat meat, huh?" Jackie replied, crossing her arms. "You know I'm a vegetarian, Matt. I don't eat meat."  
"Aw, come on, pepperoni isn't meat," Matt laughed. Inez rolled her eyes and was about to mouth off her response, but considering the setting they were in decided that now wasn't the best time to do it.  
"Can we just please order something, before we starve to death?" she replied instead. Matt and Jackie glared at her, then were about to speak their responses to her when they were interrupted by Motherboard's face appearing in the menu. Fortunately for them, however, there weren't many people in the parlor at the moment, and their waitress was still back in the kitchen. No one seemed to be paying any attention to the back booth.  
"Are you there-cybermates?" Motherboard asked.  
Matt rolled his eyes again and placed his chin in his hand. "Figures, just as our break was getting good," he muttered. "Hacker has to ruin everything, doesn't he?"  
Jackie glared at Matt for a brief moment, then looked back down at Motherboard. "What's up, Mother B?" she asked, sounding highly curious.if Hacker hadn't attacked for quite a while, what could he have possibly done to make up for that loss of time? She wasn't sure she even wanted to know.  
"I need you at Control Central-quickly," Motherboard responded. "There is something rather strange that I think-you must see."  
Before the kids could reply, the portal opened up through the menu, and the kids were drawn in. Thankfully, no one noticed them and, before the waitress could come out of the kitchen in time to ask them for their order, they and the portal had disappeared, leaving her scratching the side of her head in wonder.  
A moment later the portal opened up in the midst of Control Central, and the kids fell through, once again landing in a heap. Jackie, who had landed on top, picked herself up and began to straighten out her wrinkled skirt.  
"Ugh," she muttered. "No offense, guys, but we have got to work on our landings."  
It was then that Dr. Marbles came up, followed closely by Digit, his lips drawn in a tight line and a rather nervous twitch in his eye. Upon seeing the kids, however, his expression quickly changed to one of seriousness, and he stopped in front of them. "Thank goodness you're here," he exclaimed.  
"What's wrong this time?" Matt asked, getting to his knees and hoisting himself up. "Is Hacker up to something?" He looked to the side and muttered "again?"  
The Doctor shook his head. "No, in fact, we haven't heard anything from him since yesterday," he informed them.  
"We know, that's why we decided to take the day off," Inez replied, nodding.  
"But something's going on. Whenever Hacker is quiet this long, he's usually plotting something.and ninety percent of the time it's usually something drastic." He nervously straightened his glasses, then turned around to face the control panel and quickly punched in some numbers. "So I sent Digit in with a camera, and look at the results."  
The kids looked up at the screen as Motherboard's face faded and a series of pictures came into view. All of them showed the base, which now appeared to have been ripped to shreds. There were boxes, papers, tools, broken glass, overturned furniture, and various other objects all over the place. Matt whistled.  
"Whoo," he said, his eyes wide. "It looks like a tornado hit that place!"  
Inez nodded. "Yeah, what gives?" she asked the Doctor. "From what we've seen of Hacker, he's usually so neat and clean!"  
"I know, he hates messes even more than I do," Jackie agreed, looking over Matt's shoulder.  
"Exactly," Dr. Marbles replied, his voice sounding rather grave. "That's why you were called in. Something isn't right over there. I want the three of you to exit to Hacker's lair, and find out just what's going on there."  
"Right, we're on it," Matt sighed. "Why do these things always happen when we're so close to getting a pizza with meat on it for once?"  
"Hey, I never agreed to that," Jackie shouted after him as they headed toward the direction of the Doc's cybercoupe.  
* * *  
Delete hadn't been able to sleep much.as a matter of fact, he hadn't even slept at all, much less even tried to. He had only pretended to be asleep as the two went to bed. Buzz, after a few seconds, now appeared to be asleep, he was lying on the bed in the most relaxed manner imaginable, and lightly snoring.  
But since Buzz could be a light sleeper when he hadn't nodded off completely, Delete had to make sure. Slowly creeping over to Buzz's side of the bed, he reached one finger out to the sleeping robot, then quickly jabbed him in the side of the head, the method he had always used to wake Buzz up at night, when he needed a drink of water.  
Buzz didn't respond; he didn't even stir. Instead he remained asleep, and Delete smiled to himself, but it was very brief. Now that he was sure Buzz was out cold, he quickly turned around, then began to head off toward the storage area, taking care not to disturb Hacker, who was now in the process of tearing apart his own room. Delete quietly snuck past him, then, as soon as he was sure that he was completely out of Hacker's hearing range, broke off into a run toward the storage room, weaving desperately through the hallways, not bothering to stop until he reached the room itself.  
"Now's my chance," Delete panted, looking around. "I gotta get that egg outta here before the boss eventually comes back here an' finds it. Now, then."  
He walked over to the space between the two crates, then, as soon as he reached the gap, clapped both of his hands to his mouth and gasped in shock-only he didn't know if it was anything good this time. The egg, which had apparently grown since the last time he had seen it, had now reached an enormous size, about the size of a cradle.  
"Oh boy, this is bad," he whimpered, biting one of his nails nervously. "How am I gonna move that egg outta here now? I can't carry something that big out of the Wreaker without the boss noticing."  
That was when something else caught his attention. Walking over to the egg, he could now see that a small computer monitor-closely resembling the one that he had seen when he had first put Inez's blood in-had appeared at the side. The following words were flashing across it, in bright green letters:  
Construction process complete. Initiating activation.  
Delete swallowed hard, then backed up against one of the crates, staring at the egg in a panic.  
"Uh-oh," he finally squeaked. 


	4. Chapter Four

MY EVERYTHING  
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol  
  
CHAPTER FOUR  
Delete frantically backed up against one of the crates, then pressed himself against it, ice-cold sweat dripping down the side of his face, just barely managing to keep himself from freaking out on the spot. No sooner had the computer monitor's message faded than the egg had started flashing, lights of bright green and blue. Then, just as he was at his breaking point, pale blue lines-they looked like light trails-began snaking along the top, forming the shape of a capitol "I".  
The robot nervously gnawed at the tips of his fingers, as the lights finally faded, then, with a low hissing sound, the top of the egg, where the light trails had been only seconds earlier, opened up like a pair of double doors. Silence followed.  
Delete stared at the egg, then cautiously walked forward and looked in. What he saw made him gasp-both out of shock and fear. Lying inside the egg, now stirring awake, was a small girl, not more than three or four years old, that looked like a cross between Inez and himself. She had Inez's vest, shoe style, hairstyle, and black-rimmed eyes, but she also had Delete's cord, shirt, hands, and face. The girl's hair was a very dark brown, and her skin tone matched that of Inez's. Now, as she twitched and rolled to one side, Delete put his hand to his mouth, not sure what to think of this.  
"What!" he exclaimed. "What's going on? How did that happen? She-she was only supposed to look like Inez, not me too-"  
Before he could finish, the girl fully awakened, then turned over again, so that their eyes were locked directly onto one another's. Delete froze in place, and the girl did for a moment, too, but finally her expression of shock turned to one of glee, and she smiled.  
"Hi," she said, in a distinct toddler's voice. Delete yelped, then, not really thinking about what he was doing, scrambled up the side of the crate, clawing the wooden edges with his hands, until he finally managed to get himself atop the lid. Panting, he stared down at her and watched as she curiously looked at him, then looked at her surroundings, made a sound of curiosity, then stood up and, crawling out of the egg, landed rather hard on her frontside, directly on the floor.  
"Mmph!" she stated in discomfort as she landed, but quickly staggered to her feet, looked around again, then walked over to the crate that Delete was lying on. Delete continued to stare at her as she approached him (or at least his crate), his eyes wide and his mouth still hanging open. The girl looked up at him, then cocked her head to one side.  
"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, placing the palms of her hands against his crate. Delete backed up a few more feet; now only his head was visible from his current elevation.  
"Uh?" he replied, not really sure of what to say. The girl giggled.  
"You're funny," she told him. Delete was still unsure, but something in this child's look, her smile, somehow forced him to reconsider. Sure, he had meant to make a clone of Inez and not a mixed specimen, but was she really all that bad.? No, she wasn't, the robot finally decided. He looked down at her one last time before finally shrinking back over the edge of the crate again.  
Well, she may not be what I had in mind, but she's not the worst thing in the world, he finally thought to himself before reproaching the edge of the crate, then gulping and jumping down, hitting the floor with a rather loud CLANG. This startled the girl somewhat, and she jumped, but she quickly recovered and clapped her hands.  
"Ooh, neat!" she stated, obviously having never seen someone jump before. Delete sighed, then stared down at her for a few moments, and she stared back in a rather awkward silence. Delete finally broke the silence by shakily extending his hand and patting the child on the head.  
"Hey, kid," he finally said, trying his hardest not to be afraid of the girl. "What's your name? Do you have one?"  
The child looked up at him, her smile faded, then she looked up toward the ceiling, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth as she thought. Finally, she looked back at him and replied, "I dunno. I don' think I have one."  
Delete crossed one leg over the other, his chin in one hand. "Hmm, then I guess I gotta give you a name, then," he told her. The girl nodded.  
"'Kay," she replied sweetly.  
Delete smiled briefly, then thought with what little of his brain he had. "What do I call you.?" he thought aloud, staring down at her. At first he appeared to be completely stumped, but then he muttered "Wait.", recalling his dream that he had had about Inez. He sighed dreamily at the mere thought of the fantasy Inez caressing his head.but quickly shook his head and looked back down at the child.  
"Inez?" he thought aloud. "No, no, wait, there's already one. That could cause some confusion. Uh." He thought some more. "Hmm.what's that name Matt's always calling her, though? Oh, oh yeah, Nezzie." He looked down at the girl, then placed his hands behind his back and smiled gently. "You wanna be called Nezzie?"  
The child blinked, then finally said, "Okay."  
Delete nodded, then stared at her, the gentle, almost loving grin still on his face. Then he finally realized what he had come in here for in the first place, then gasped and clapped his hand to his mouth. Hacker was still searching the base, and he was pretty sure that any moment he or Buzz would eventually come to the storage room. As much as he liked his older brother, he decided that Buzz could not be trusted. The child had to be kept a secret from everyone and everything, or else his cover would be blown for sure.  
I gotta do something, he thought as he frantically looked around. I gotta do something, but what? What?!...wait, maybe if the boss is still busy, I can sneak her outta here, and maybe get in one of the Coupes. His fearful expression returned. But what do I do then? I can't run away from him my entire life.oh, geez, never mind, just do something before he finds you in here!  
Trying to hide the signs of fear in his body, he placed his hands behind his back again and looked down at Nezzie, trying his hardest to smile and sound innocent. "Nezzie, I gotta go away for a moment. There's something I gotta do." He patted her on the head again, then said, "So don't go wandering around, okay? Stay somewhere where.um.mommy can find you."  
Nezzie blinked again. "'Kay," she replied again. Delete sighed, then turned around and ran off down the hallway. Nezzie watched him as he departed, then turned around, walked toward the egg, and, sitting down in front of it, stared at it, watching the lights continue to flash on the egg.  
This went on for a couple of minutes, and the child was just about to get dizzy from staring at the flashes when she heard another noise. Thinking that it was her mommy coming back for her, she looked up hopefully toward the noise's origination-namely, the air vent built into one side of the wall. There were a few more heavy thumping noises, then the vent finally popped off and struck the floor, making a deafening sound in the process. Matt, covered in dust from the vent, jumped down behind a stack of boxes, then looked back up at the grate, frowning.  
"Whoops," he said, as Jackie, who had been behind him, stuck her head out of the vent.  
"Nice one, Matt," she scoffed. "I'll bet that they heard you all the way in Solaria. While you're going to make a bunch of noise, why don't you just ring the doorbell while you're at it?" She then looked down at her shirt. "Ew! And would you look at all this dust? I suppose the vents are the only things that haven't been cleaned around here!" She shuddered.  
Matt rolled his eyes. "Aw, come on, Jax," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. "No one could've possibly heard that. We're all the way in the back, remember?"  
Jackie sighed, then got out of the vent and landed on the floor beside Matt. "What are we doing all the way in the back, anyway?" she asked as she brushed at her hair, trying to get the dust out of it.  
"Because it's the only space in the Grim Wreaker that hasn't been torn apart yet," Matt replied. "I already tried all the windows; they all had stuff piled up against them, remember?"  
Nezzie, meanwhile, was watching from behind one of the box crates, beginning to feel frightened at the presence of these two strangers. She then looked up in time to see someone else come out of the vent and land on the floor beside the other two. Inez straightened herself up, then looked over at Matt and Jackie.  
"Let's just go see what's going on, then get out of here," she told the other two. "Something just doesn't seem right here to me." She looked over to one side of the room, frowning. Matt and Jackie nodded in agreement; then the three began to start off down the hallway.  
Nezzie stared at Inez for a while, then turned to look behind her at the egg. The egg had, naturally, been made of new metal, and because of that it still had an incredible shininess to it. She looked at her reflection for awhile, then looked back at Inez, then back at her reflection. Realizing that she looked a lot like the person she had just seen come out of the vent and walk off, she looked over at the kids, at Inez, just as the three vanished down the hallway.  
"Daddy?" Nezzie asked, her eyes wide. She then quickly ran out from behind the crate and began to head off after the three. "Daddy!"  
* * *  
Matt, Jackie and Inez had stopped in an intersection between a set of hallways, a set that Hacker had already searched-or, to put it better in this case, demolished. Various objects were piled up and strewn everywhere, and the kids had to slow down in order to step around the broken glass that was scattered about the floor in shards.  
"Geez, would you look at this place?" Inez said, stepping over a pile of various paperwork. "What could Hacker possibly be up to as to actually do something like this?"  
"Knowing him, one of his inventions probably blew up," Matt suggested; the girls weren't sure whether this was a joke or not. Inez shook her head, disagreeing.  
"And messed up the entire base?" she asked, looking over at him. "I don't know, Matt."  
Jackie, meanwhile, was hardly listening to their conversation at all; she was beginning to get a little bored, not to mention a little frustrated from stepping through the various debris. She was now leaning against one of the walls, looking in the direction that they had come from, when she saw Nezzie walk out of the hallway and stop a few yards behind where they were currently standing. She was looking at them curiously, almost unsurely.  
Jackie's eyes grew wide as saucers, and her mouth dropped open slightly, at first unable to believe what she was seeing. "Uh, guys?" she said nervously, her voice shaking, but Inez and Matt were ignoring her, still continuing their conversation.  
"Well, Hacker's new plan has to be around here somewhere," Inez told Matt, placing her hands on her hips.  
"Where do you think we should start looking?" Matt asked. "We know that we don't have to look in the rooms that are already torn up, no doubt that Hacker's already thoroughly checked harder."  
"Uh, guys," Jackie replied, her voice still quaking in shock, "I-I don't think that'll be much of a problem anymore."  
Matt and Inez looked at her. "Huh?" they both said at once.  
That was when they noticed that Jackie wasn't staring at them; she was staring past them. The two looked at her a few more seconds, then finally turned around and spotted Nezzie, still standing in the doorway, one of her fingers in her mouth. Now all three were staring at the girl, dumbfounded, their mouths dropping open, as Nezzie took her finger out of her mouth, then smiled and approached Inez.  
"Uh?" Inez said, shocked, the same noise that Delete had made earlier upon first meeting the girl. Nezzie smiled, then stuck out her hands like she wanted Inez to pick her up.  
"Daddy!" she exclaimed sweetly, smiling. Inez stared at her a moment, her head tilted to one side and her position shifted, then she finally looked up toward the ceiling, made a soft sighing sound, and passed out. Matt shot out and managed to catch her just before she hit the floor.  
* * *  
Delete, meanwhile, had finished checking the area for any signs of his boss and had now run back into the storage room, looking in all directions. "Okay," he panted, looking to one side, then the other, "The coast is clear. I gotta get here outta here before that changes, though-"  
He stopped abruptly when he reached the crates where he had left Nezzie earlier. Finding that she was gone from the area, he looked around frantically, then gasped and clapped both hands to his mouth, his expression turning to one of absolute fear.  
"Oh no, what happened to her?!" he exclaimed, still panicking; he then began to frantically search the area, even managing to lift one of the crates in the process (even though he knew that she probably couldn't manage to hide under there). Panting, he slumped against the crate and was just about to give up in tears when he noticed that the door near the hallway, the one nearest the now opened vent, was wide open. Thinking to himself, he suddenly recalled that the door had been closed when he had last gone in there.  
"Oh, no," he said to himself, shaking his head. "She must've wandered off.if she runs into the boss." He gulped and cut himself off, not wanting to even think about that. Bringing his hands to the sides of his head, he tried to calm himself, but all results proved unsuccessful.  
"Nngh.I gotta find her!" he finally exclaimed, then, without thinking twice, ran through the open doorway and began to head down the hall.  
* * *  
Inez had woken up from her previous "slumber", finding that she was now lying against the wall. Just after she had passed out, Matt had handed Inez over to Jackie while he cleared out a space for her to lie against, then the two had gently set her against it, waiting for her to awaken. Groaning, she tilted her head to one side, then looked up in time to see Matt, currently standing over her with a concerned expression on his face.  
"Ugh.oh, man, Matt," she said, her voice still rather groggy. "I just had this weird dream.we were in Hacker's lair and we were searching around, and then I saw a little girl that looked like Delete dressed up as me.and then." She then looked behind him and spotted Nezzie, now staring at her.  
"Hi!" Nezzie said when she saw Inez look at her. The Latino's eyes widened, and she shrieked and bolted upright, staring at the girl, not sure whether to be frightened or shocked. She supposed both were appropriate in this case.  
"How, what, who?" she exclaimed, still not sure if she was in a dream or not. Matt and Jackie stared at her, then looked up at the hallway the moment that Delete came running through it, out of breath. He slumped against the wall, then looked up and spotted Nezzie.  
"Nezzie!" he exclaimed, running toward the girl, his arms outstretched. Nezzie looked up at him, then smiled and began to run toward him, too.  
"Mommy!" she replied, as she approached him and hugged him tightly around the legs. Inez looked surprised.then again, she had been that way since the time she had first spotted the little girl.  
"Mommy?" she asked.  
Delete made a confused noise, then finally looked up and spotted the kids. The first one he noticed was Inez, still sitting on her knees on the floor. "Inez?" he called.  
Nezzie looked up at him, then, still keeping one arm around his leg, pointed at Inez. "Daddy," she told him.  
"Daddy?" Delete asked.  
"Daddy?" Matt repeated. Delete, unsure of what to think about this, looked down at the girl, then put his hands at his sides.  
"Nezzie!" he scolded.  
"Nezzie?" Matt repeated again.  
"Matt!" Inez shouted at him, annoyed.  
Matt shook his head. "No, not you, Nezzie," he responded, then pointed at the little cyborg girl. "Nezzie."  
Nezzie nodded, then pointed at herself. "Nezzie," she told them, matter-of-factly.  
It was then that they heard more footsteps in the hallway, and Buzz and Hacker, having heard the commotion, entered the room. Both of them stopped short in surprise when they saw the kids, along with Delete and the new little girl that was now tightly hugging his leg.  
"Delete!" Hacker shouted, sounding rather peeved. Buzz panted a few times, then stopped at Hacker's side.  
"Delete!" Buzz repeated.  
Matt looked up at Hacker, then jumped back in surprise. "Hacker!"  
"You!" Hacker responded, leering at the redhead.  
Buzz looked at Delete, then finally caught sight of the cyborg girl once again. Looking up at Delete, he narrowed one eye in confusion. "Delete?"  
Delete turned around. "Buzz?"  
"Nezzie," Nezzie told them, pointing at herself again and nodding her head.  
"Nezzie?" Buzz asked, sounding more confused than he had before.  
"Nezzie?" Hacker repeated, sounding just as confused.  
Jackie watched this conversation, then finally clapped both hands over her ears; she could take it no longer. "SHUT UP!" she finally yelled, provoking the stares of everyone in the room. She looked at them almost sheepishly as they looked at her. Nezzie giggled.  
"This is fun, am I winning?" she asked.  
Jackie grunted, then held up her hands to silence them. "Okay, okay, time out, hold it, here," she said. "Can somebody please tell me what in the world is going on here?"  
Everyone then tore their gaze away from Jackie and looked at Delete, who looked back at them, almost shamefully, scraping his foot across the floor. "Uh, well?" he replied, almost blushing from embarrassment.  
"Daddy?" Nezzie asked, staring at Inez.  
"Delete," Inez demanded, pointing at Nezzie, the other hand on her hip, "just who is this girl, and why is she calling you mommy? Why is she calling me daddy? What's going on here?"  
Delete couldn't reply for a few moments; he looked off to the side, unable to stare anyone directly in the eye. "Uh." He paused while searching for an answer. Then, deciding that no lie would ever mask this up, he finally replied, hanging his head in shame, "I.made her."  
Everyone gasped. Jackie shook her head in disbelief.  
"What do you mean you made her?" she demanded. "You're a robot, how can you manage to make a kid?"  
At hearing these words, Hacker gasped; suddenly it had all fallen into place. Angrily gritting his teeth, clenching his fists to the point where they were turning pale, he stepped forward in Delete's direction and angrily shrieked, "My invention, YOU USED MY INVENTION!"  
Nezzie, frightened by Hacker's voice, quickly ran over to Inez and ducked behind her leg, seeing that Delete was in no shape to be hid behind. He was now visibly shaking as he looked up at Hacker, suddenly seeming very small compared to the angry, towering cyborg. "Uh, uh, uh," Delete stammered, his entire body shivering violently, he then replied, "Kinda."  
"You what?" Buzz seemed equally surprised. "Delete, are you nuts? What's goin' on here, huh?"  
"Uh." Delete looked over at his older brother; anything to keep himself from staring at Hacker any longer. "Uh, it's sort of a long story."  
"Oh, is it?" Hacker replied, his voice sounding very forced. "Well, let me tell you something, Delete. I'd love to hear you try and talk your way out of this one."  
Delete swallowed hard, then said, his voice still shaking, "Um, well, you see, I was gettin' kinda lonely around the base."  
"Lonely?" Buzz interrupted, raising an eyebrow.  
Delete nodded. "Well, yeah.I mean, with the boss off workin' on stuff, and you doin' other things, there's usually no one around here to talk to. So, I overheard the boss talkin' about his new invention, and what it could do, and I thought that if I used it-" He looked over at Hacker, who now seemed ready to scream at any moment. "I'd.have.somebody to.to talk to."  
"Oh, do tell," Hacker replied, the vague outlines of his circuitry beginning to show through his hands. Delete looked over at him again, then tore his gaze away from his and tried to continue without breaking down completely.  
"Well, you see, I got to thinkin'."  
Buzz scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, great, here we go," he muttered in disgust. Delete paused to glare at him, then continued his explanation.  
"So, anyway, I thought that Inez would be nice to talk to." He tugged on his yellow collar and looked over at Inez, blushing. Inez was blushing as well, although her expression remained one of shock. "So.I used that old.bug.thing to get some of her blood, so I could make it work."  
Inez suddenly recalled the incident that had happened yesterday. "So that's what I felt on the roller coaster!" she declared, glaring at him. "You nearly got me killed, Delete!"  
"Um, well, yes," Delete told her, blushing an even deeper shade. He began toying around with his hands nervously. "I'm sorry.anyway, I put the blood in the egg, and hid it in the storage room, behind those two crates. That was yesterday, and, well." He gestured toward Nezzie, still hiding behind Inez's leg. "She came out of it." He then shook his head. "But I only put Inez's blood in, so I don't know what happened."  
Inez nodded; it had all fallen into place now. "Why were you calling her Nezzie?" she asked, reaching down to pat the frightened child on the head.  
"Oh," Delete told her, sheepishly. "Well, she needed a name, and I remembered how Matt calls you Nezzie sometimes, so I thought it sounded.kinda nice, so I decided to use that."  
Inez smacked her face. "Oh, great, just great," she muttered. "It's bad enough that Matt calls me Nezzie; now there's a kid with that annoying name too."  
Jackie sighed and shook her head as well. "Oh, man," she said, placing one hand on her forehead, "I'm starting to wish I'd just stayed in the pizza parlor, even if it meant eating pepperoni." She stuck out her tongue at recalling the nasty meat product.  
Hacker, meanwhile, was fuming; he looked ready to blow his top any minute. Delete swallowed, then cringed back and said, looking up at Hacker very much the way a frightened dog does.  
"You don't mean to tell me," he said, his voice seething with anger, "That my invention was wasted on THAT?!" He jabbed his finger in Nezzie's direction, and the toddler cringed back further behind Inez's leg. Matt angrily stepped in front of Inez and Nezzie, blocking their view from Hacker.  
"Hold it, Hacker," he said angrily, looking the furious cyborg directly in the eye.  
"Don't you dare start with me," Hacker snapped at him. "This day is turning out bad enough as is."  
"Look," Jackie said, holding up her hands. "We all need to regroup and figure out what's going on here. For now, let's just go back to Control Central, and figure out just what the heck we're gonna do now."  
"Oh no," Hacker replied angrily. "You aren't taking her anywhere anytime soon." He shifted his gaze down toward Buzz, who was still standing there, dumbfounded, not sure what to do. "Buzz?" he said, although Buzz already knew what he was to be asked.  
The stocky robot nodded. "Right, boss," he replied; he then began walking toward Nezzie. Matt, however, blocked his path, giving him a shove backward with his hand.  
"Don't even think about it," the boy replied, leering down at the robot.  
Buzz's expression contorted into one of rage. "Oh, no," he replied, balling his hands into fists. "Don't you DARE start 'dis with me again."  
"Who's stopping me?" Matt snapped back. "If I can recall, I managed to pin you to the ground last time we met, did I not?" He crossed his arms.  
"You got lucky!" Buzz snapped back, jabbing his finger in Matt's direction. "Why, if I'd just managed to get my hands on you, I'd have-"  
The two then started heatedly arguing, Buzz trying to grab Nezzie, and Matt shoving him back. Jackie, fearing that they might get into another fight with the child in their presence, had walked up to Matt and was grabbing him by the shoulders, trying to hold him back, and Delete had a tight grip on Buzz's fists, trying to hold him back. The two continued to leer at each other, both of them raving like machines, Buzz trying to struggle out of Delete's grip as so to land a hit on Matt. Inez was standing there, dumbfounded, with Nezzie clamped tightly onto her leg, looking at the two arguing strangers fearfully.  
Hacker was doing little to nothing to stop this, he was still furious about his invention, and, after the argument had gone on for several minutes, stopped short in his train of thought. Wait a minute.Control Central? He thought to himself, then a rather evil grin crept over his face.  
"Wait," Hacker suddenly told them, stepping between the angry Buzz and the equally angry Matt. "You're right. Maybe you should take her instead."  
At hearing these words out of Hacker's mouth, of all people, everyone stopped short, then stared up at him. Buzz and Delete were especially confused; Delete released his grip on Buzz's fists.  
"Huh?" Delete asked.  
"What 'da.?" Buzz questioned.  
"Jackie's right," Hacker told them. "We need time to figure out what's going on, so why don't you take her to Control Central now." He nodded toward the kids, who stared back at him, still unable to believe what they were hearing.  
"Wait a minute, what's going on here?" Matt asked, holding out his hands in confusion.  
"Ugh, never mind that, Matt!" Jackie told him. "Let's just get out of here, while we still can!" She turned around and began to walk down the hallway. "Really, men!"  
At hearing this both Matt and Buzz glared after her, then Matt finally looked at Hacker suspiciously, then over at Inez, who shrugged her shoulders, still confused. Matt finally sighed. "Fine," he agreed, still looking at Hacker in suspicion, "But I don't like this."  
Delete sighed, not really wanting to say goodbye to his child, but went over to Nezzie anyway. She looked at him innocently, then reached out one of her hands to him. "Mommy?" she asked.  
"Nezzie, you need to go with your daddy for awhile," Delete told her, placing one hand gently on her shoulder. He then felt tears come to his eyes, but he tried to hold them back; the last thing he wanted to do was to cry in front of the kids. "Okay?" he finally managed to choke out.  
Nezzie looked at him, then nodded. "Okay," she repeated.  
Delete sighed, then hugged her tightly, muttering "I love you, kid," before finally releasing his grip on her. He then let Nezzie walk over to Inez, and she followed the two remaining members of the Cybersquad out, with him waving goodbye before finally getting up and turning around to face his boss.  
"I can explain, boss, really!" he stated, but Hacker refused to listen to the robot.  
"I don't want to hear anything of it right now!" he snapped at Delete. "Just go to your room, and start cleaning up. I want it spotless by the time Buzz and I get back, understand?"  
Delete swallowed hard, fighting to keep back the tears. Finally slumping forward shamefully, he replied "Yes, sir" in a shaky tone, then walked off down the hall, sniffling to himself. As soon as he was out of sight, Buzz looked up at Hacker, now thoroughly confused.  
"Boss, are you nuts!" he exclaimed. "Why'd you just let 'dem walk out like 'dat? 'Dat's not like youse at all-"  
"Buzz," he interrupted, holding up his hand to silence the robot. "Do you know what my plan was for the egg?"  
Buzz raised an eyebrow. "Uh.?"  
"My plan was to make more of you and Delete, and send them into Control Central. That way, the kids would be so busy dealing with that, they wouldn't have any time to deal with me." Hacker laced his fingers together, grinning slyly. "Now tell me, Buzz, just how much trouble do you think Delete's four year old daughter could cause?"  
Buzz thought a moment about this, then an equally sly, not to mention cruel, grin spread across his face. "Hey, yeah," he replied, just as evilly as his boss.  
"This glorious little child is going to run those brats ragged," Hacker laughed. "A few days of dealing with her, and Motherboard's brats will be too exhausted to do anything." He began laughing insanely, then he shook his head. "Those kids aren't going to get in my way.ever again." 


	5. Chapter Five

MY EVERYTHING  
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol  
  
CHAPTER FIVE  
Meanwhile, outside the Hacker's base, Digit was waiting for the kids out by the Coupe, and was now worriedly pacing back and forth, every now and then shooting a nervous glance back up at the base. He wondered what was taking them so long.they usually never took this long to find out what Hacker was up to. Being honest with himself, he decided that he was getting dreadfully concerned.  
Digit shot another glance back up at the base, then let out a quick, nervous sigh. "Where are they?" he wondered aloud, shaking his head. Just as he turned around, however, he found Matt, Jackie and Inez approaching him.  
"Oh, there you are!" Digit exclaimed, relieved. He then got down to business. "So, did you manage to find anything?"  
Matt and Jackie exchanged glances, while Inez smiled weakly. "Uh, yeah," she replied, sounding rather nervous herself, now. "Digit, can you do us a favor and get Motherboard on the Squwak?"  
"Sure," Digit replied, shrugging. He reached inside the open door of the Coupe, then picked up the Squwak pad and tossed it to Inez. Inez nodded in gratitude, then punched a few buttons. After a few seconds, Motherboard's face flickered onto the screen.  
"Inez? Inez? Is that you?" Motherboard asked. "Are you-alright? Have you found-anything?"  
Inez smiled sheepishly again. "Uh, yeah, Motherboard," she replied, then looked off to the side before continuing. "Uh, we have something to discuss with you. There's kinda been a.development, let me say."  
"Development?" Motherboard repeated; she sounded thoroughly confused.  
"Yeah," Inez replied. "Here, let me show you just what was happening over there." She walked over to one of the crates near the base, then reached behind it. "Come on," she coaxed the figure gently, as if trying to get it to come out. Digit stood there, not sure what to think of this, but his mouth dropped open the moment that Inez pulled Nezzie out from behind the crate, bringing her into full view. The child looked around nervously, her hand in her mouth.  
"What the.?" Digit was aghast.  
Motherboard looked rather surprised, too, if a supercomputer could manage that. "Inez, who is-this girl?" she asked, her voice covering up for her lack of expression. Inez patted Nezzie on the head, then looked back at Motherboard's image.  
"It's kind of a long story," Inez told her. "If we can bring her to Control Central with us, we'll explain everything, I promise." She put an arm around the child's shoulder and brought her closer to her side.  
Motherboard thought this over for a few moments. "Very well," she finally agreed, as Digit, still shocked, looked Nezzie over, then finally turned around, his eyes still wide, his expression still one of shock, and began to head back for the Coupe.  
"That's it," he told himself weakly as he opened the door to the driver's side and slowly slipped in behind the controls. "I am never going to put oregano in my salad again."  
* * *  
".And so that's what happened," Inez finished, completing her explanation as to what happened back in the Grim Wreaker. Dr. Marbles was standing in front of her, a thoughtful expression on his face; despite his expression of seriousness, he seemed very impressed, not to mention unable to believe it at first.  
"So, what you're saying to me is that Delete used Hacker's invention to create this girl?" the Doctor asked, gesturing toward the room adjacent to him. Jackie nodded.  
"Looks like it," she replied.  
The Cybersquad was currently in the main control room, along with Dr. Marbles, Digit, and Motherboard. Awhile ago Inez had sent Nezzie off to play with Widget in the other room, giving them time to discuss her without her constantly getting in the way. They had then tried to explain, with as much detail as possible, what happened with Nezzie and Delete. Motherboard had grown very concerned; it didn't take a computer genius to figure that out.  
"Inez?" Motherboard finally asked.  
Inez looked up at the supercomputer. "Yes?" she replied.  
"From what you have told me, the girl is, in effect-" The tracking that Hacker's virus had caused then returned for a few moments before she returned to her normal state. "Your offspring?"  
Inez looked down, rather disturbed now that she saw it this way, then finally nodded. "I guess she is," she finally said; she then placed one hand to the side of her head and shook it in disbelief. "I cannot believe I just said that."  
"I understand," Motherboard replied, almost sympathetically. "You're still fairly young, and under the circumstances given you could hardly be prepared." She tracked again before once again returning to her normal state. "May I ask what you plan to do with-Nezzie?"  
Inez groaned. "Out of all the names in the world, why did Delete have to name her that?" she complained. She then shook her head. "I have no idea what I'm going to do. I mean, I can't exactly take her home with me, if you know what I mean."  
"There is another," Motherboard reminded her. "Delete must be- considered as well."  
Matt looked up at her, confused, in a way. "What? Why?" he asked.  
"Matt, come on," Jackie replied, crossing her arms. "I mean, I don't like it anymore than you do. But like it or not, Delete is her mother.or father, or whatever. He has a connection to her, and we just can't pretend that she doesn't."  
"Okay, okay, let's not get in too deep, here," Digit told them, waving his wings. "Jackie, you are right, in a way. But there's a problem, here. If we do let Delete have contact with her, doesn't that usually mean putting her close to Hacker?" The others stared at him, thinking this over. The bird did have a good point, and they could clearly see that. "I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally do not like that idea one bit."  
"Neither do I," Motherboard admitted, "But I am not willing to exclude Delete entirely from Nezzie's life. This-matter will take a great- deal of thought. In the meantime, we-must decide on what to-do with her."  
Inez had now taken her seat on a nearby countertop and was now staring at the floor, very quietly. Jackie, sensing that something was wrong, walked up to her, then gently placed a hand on her shoulder.  
"Hey, Inez," she said. "You okay?"  
Inez sighed, then told her, "I just found out that I may have a daughter with a person-er, robot, that I barely know, not to mention that he's working for the enemy." She leaned back against the counter, swinging her feet, now looking down at the floor. "Under the circumstances, the term 'okay' hardly applies to this." She shook her head in defeat. "What am I gonna do with her? I don't know anything about taking care of a kid." She sighed heavily and put her head in her hands.  
Matt thought a moment, then finally an idea came to his head. "We could do it," he told the group. Everyone stopped what they were doing- which wasn't much, concerning the situation-and looked up at him.  
"Um, excuse me?" Jackie asked, crossing her arms. "What did you just say?"  
"I said that we could do it," Matt told her, shrugging a shoulder. "We could find her a room here, and we could take turns babysitting her and stuff. I mean, there's only one of her, and there are six of us. I'm pretty sure we can manage."  
"A courageous suggestion, Matthew," Dr. Marbles replied, nodding his head, but his expression quickly became grave. "But Control Central is hardly an ideal place for a child, especially one so young as this."  
"I know, Doc," Matt told him, "But we don't seem to have much of a choice."  
"We will work something out," Motherboard encouraged. "But I must ask each of you, if you are-willing to help out in-this case."  
"Well." Jackie thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "I've babysat before, and I know a few things about kids, so I guess that I can help out."  
"I've never babysat before in my life, but I'm still in," Matt added, stepping forward next to Jackie. The girl looked over at him, then smiled.  
"Count me in, too," Digit agreed, raising his wing. "I know I a ton of recipes that she's bound to like."  
Dr. Marbles looked at them, then finally sighed and said, shaking his head, "I'm not entirely sure of this, but I suppose there's no alternative."  
Inez smiled weakly. "Thanks, guys," she sighed, reaching out to pat Digit on the shoulder. "Some days I just don't know what I'd do without you."  
"I know that," Digit replied confidently, grinning. There was a pause in the room for a few seconds before one of them decided to speak again.  
"Well, I.guess we should go find her a room," Jackie suggested. "Oh, and she's gonna need some furniture, too." She looked up toward the ceiling again. "Oh, man, but I just don't know where to get some."  
"We've got some old furniture in our attic," Matt offered. "It used to be mine, but I outgrew it, you know? I'm sure my mom and dad won't miss it, and by the looks of it I don't think that they're planning on having any more kids anytime soon." He looked off to the side, rather uneasy. "At least, I hope not."  
No sooner had he mentioned the furniture than had Jackie started snickering to herself. Matt looked over at her, then narrowed one eye and turned on her, placing his hands at his sides. "Hey, what's so funny?" he demanded.  
"Oh, nothing," Jackie replied innocently; before Matt could reply she abruptly changed the subject. "Anyway, I've got some old clothes tucked away that don't fit me anymore, but they're still in good shape. Maybe she could use those."  
"I may be capable of inventing some toys for her," Dr. Marbles suggested.  
The kids all nodded in agreement, grinning hugely; then they set to work. As they did, however, not one of them noticed the small robot mosquito plugged onto the top of the ceiling. And, of course, that meant that none of them knew Hacker had fixed it and had plugged the thing's remote into a larger console, so that he could see everything that the kids and the Doc were doing at the moment.  
"Perfect, perfect," the green cyborg exclaimed gleefully, as he made a few more adjustments to the screen. "Now we can get a bug's eye view of the whole thing."  
Hacker, Buzz, and Delete were now back in the main control room; Buzz and Delete had managed to move a couch directly in front of Hacker's wall- sized computer screen, so that they could watch everything as it happened. Hacker was sitting on one side, Delete was slumped against the other, a depressed look on his face, staring down at the floor. Buzz walked up with a bowl of popcorn.  
"Heh, heh, 'dis is gonna be sweet, who wants popcorn?" he offered. Hacker and Delete both ignored him, so he shrugged, smirked to himself, then jumped up onto the couch between Hacker and Delete, setting the bowl of popcorn next to him. "All 'da more for me, 'den," he said to himself, pulling out a handful.  
Within just a few hours the three had managed to get a montage of clips from Control Central, and now they sat in front of the computer monitor, watching the whole thing.all except Delete, who continued to stare down at the floor, tracing circles on the couch with his index finger as Hacker and Buzz watched the scenario before them, obviously enjoying themselves.  
The first clip was with Digit, showing Nezzie how to hand-toss pizza dough. The little cyborg girl was standing on a stool watching him, and as she leaned forward to get a closer look at what he was doing she lost her balance and began to fall off. Digit looked over in time to see her about to fall, and, in a panic, quickly reached out and caught her...just as the pizza dough he had tossed up earlier landed directly atop his head.  
Hacker laughed, while Buzz snickered to himself, almost snorting out his popcorn. "Oh, yeah, 'dis kid's a natural, all right," he declared. Delete looked over at him, then looked back at the floor without saying anything.  
The next clip was of Nezzie with Jackie, this time. Jackie was currently seated on a stool in Nezzie's room, trying to teach her about the basics of makeup. Nezzie picked up a compact full of face powder, then sniffed it once and immediately sneezed into the powder, provoking a rather large dust cloud. When it cleared, both she and Jackie were splotched with white powder. Jackie yelped and began trying to get it out of her hair, while Nezzie blinked, then stared down at the compact, a cautious look now on her face.  
The third was of Nezzie with Matt. Matt had taken her on an outing to R-Fair City, and was now riding with her on the carousel. Both apparently seemed to be having a good time, especially Nezzie, who was laughing and waving her hands in the air. However, as she passed the control panel, she accidentally hit the lever, and the ride sped up to its maximum speed, throwing a few other kids off in the process.  
The attendant, realizing what was going on, quickly dropped the magazine that he was reading and lunged for the lever, pushing it back and bringing the ride to a stop. Nezzie got off, laughing and clapping her hands in delight, while Matt staggered off his horse, looking dizzy, then his face paled and he held his stomach. He then fell over, flat on his face.  
And the fourth. This time Nezzie was with her "father", Inez, and the Latino was trying to show her how to bounce a ball. She demonstrated it for the cyborg girl, then handed the ball to her. Nezzie looked at the ball, then at the wall, then finally bounced it against the wall with all the force she had. As it came back for her, she tried to catch it, but missed, and the ball bounced around the room until it finally rebounded and smacked her in the back of the head, knocking off her glasses and sending her to the floor.  
By now both Hacker and Buzz were roaring with laughter, so hard, in fact, that tears were rolling down both their faces. "Oh man-boss-did you see that?" Buzz managed to say between laughing fits. "Hee-hee-hee-she's a natural-oh geez-oh man-" He fell over on the side of the couch, clutching his stomach, then paused to pick up some popcorn, cramming it into his mouth while trying to laugh at the same time. "Oh man-oh-AAACCCK!"  
Apparently this hadn't worked out; the popcorn had gone down the wrong tube. Buzz bolted upright, then coughed and gagged, trying to dislodge the popcorn from his throat. When he finally managed to do so, he wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes, then turned to look over at Delete. "Hey, Dee-Dee, are youse enjoying 'da-"  
He stopped dead, however, when he noticed that Delete was crying.and not with laughter, unlike he and Hacker were. He was sniffling to himself, his face almost completely hidden in one hand, the tears staining the couch. Buzz looked at him concernedly, then reached out and tried to place his hand on his shoulder, but the taller robot drew away.  
Buzz grunted. "What's wrong with you?" he asked.  
"Huh?" Delete stopped and, suddenly self-conscious now, quickly wiped the tears from his eyes and looked over at him. "Oh, nothin'. I was just.thinkin' about things, is all."  
Buzz knew very well what he was thinking about, but he decided not to care. "Whatever," he replied, rolling his eyes; he then went back to watching the remainder of the clips. Hacker was still laughing like mad; apparently this was a real treat compared to what he had to go through earlier in the hallway.  
* * *  
Later that night-much later, in fact; Hacker and Buzz had consumed much of their evening watching those clips-the three finally retired to their rooms for the night. Buzz, being what he was, was already out cold, his mouth partly open, drooling. Delete was lying in the bed next to him, turned over on his side, but he, on the other hand, could not sleep. While Hacker and Buzz had thought of those clips as a special version of "Cyberspace's Funniest Home Videos", Delete had thought of it as personal torture.  
Unable to get himself to sleep, he sat up and, looking over at Buzz, who was still sleeping heavily, sighed and, slowly getting out of the bed, tiptoed out of the room, then slunk along the hallways until he reached the main control room. The couch was still there; he headed past it and out the main doors, managing to climb his way up the remainder of the Wreaker onto the roof. He then lay down and stared up through the large opening in the ceiling, staring up at the stars for awhile. He sighed, then rolled over onto his side and slowly sat up.  
"Well, at least they're takin' good care of her," he sighed to himself. "But I only got to see her once.and I know I may never see her again." He looked back up at the stars, then finally, softly, began to sing, trying to remember the lyrics the way he had heard them:  
"We got it together didn't we,  
"Nobody but you and me,  
"We got it together baby.  
"My first, my last, my everything  
"And the answer to all my dreams  
"You're my sun, my moon, my guiding star  
"My kind of wonderful, that's what you are.  
"I know there's only, only one like you  
"There's no way they could have made two  
"You're, you're all I'm living for  
"Your love I'll keep forever more.  
"You're the first, my last, my everything,  
"In you I've found so many things  
"A love so new only you could bring  
"Can't you see if you, you'll make me feel this way  
"You're like a first morning dew on a brand new day.  
"I see so many ways that I can love you 'till the day I die.  
"You're my reality, yet I'm lost in a dream  
"You're the first, my last, my everything  
"I know there's only, only one like you "There's no way they could have made two "Girl you're my reality  
"But I'm lost in a dream.  
"You're the first, you're the last, my everything." Finishing up his song, Delete sadly picked himself up, then, dragging his feet, began to make his way back to the inside of the Wreaker before Hacker or Buzz woke up, wondering what in cyberspace that racket was about. 


	6. Chapter Six

MY EVERYTHING  
By Max Jordan and Grand High Idol  
  
CHAPTER SIX  
It was the next morning, now, and the Cybersquad were now currently back in Control Central. They had been very paranoid with Digit when it came to watching Nezzie for the night, but she had managed to sleep pretty well for a few hours-after completely wearing Digit out, that is. Inez, being the parent, had to stay with her and try to get her to calm down, but of course that was like trying to stop a superball-you had to be fast, or it wouldn't work. Eventually the kids all had to stay and try to keep her at bay-which was a difficult task, even for the entire group.  
Now all four of them were sitting around one of the tables in the other room, and they all looked haggard and worn down. Inez was currently holding an ice pack to the back of her head, and Jackie still had a few white splotches on her clothes from the powder; she appeared to be much too tired to even bother to try and remove them, however. Matt, who had recently ejected his lunch-or, to put it more appropriately, dinner-on the carousel earlier, was now slumped over the edge of the table, absentmindedly drawing invisible circles with the tip of his finger.  
"Man," he declared, shaking his head, sounding incredibly tired. "Who knew that taking care of a kid could be this much work?"  
Jackie nodded. "Oh, man, I know," she replied, leaning back in her chair, her head tilted over the edge. "Baby sitting wasn't this intense.ugh.and I haven't even checked my hair yet. I hope that it's not messed up like it usually-"  
"Well, yeah," Inez interrupted, yawning. "I've got to admit that Nezzie does seem tireless. I wonder if Delete was like that, at her age." She shook her head. "Geez, I don't even want to think about what you had to put up with as a kid, Digit."  
"Er." Digit replied, a rather pained expression forming on his face. He then looked off to the side, then, noticing that something was amiss, turned around in his chair and began to visually search the room. "Hey, speaking of Nezzie, where'd she head off to, anyway?"  
"Dr. Marbles is giving her a tour of Control Central," Inez replied; she then clunked her head down on the table and sighed. "Not that she's already had one already."  
"Well, on the bright side, maybe we can get some peace, now," Matt replied, holding up his hand, but he quickly dropped it and slumped to one side in the chair. "Yeah, we're going to need it.I suddenly feel very old, and that's not a good sign."  
"Oh, well, then, how do you think I feel?" Digit asked, hitting his head on the table as he fell over; this didn't seem to bother him in the least, however. "I'm twice as old as you are. And what about the Doc?" He shuddered. "Well, hopefully she'll be out of our hair.and my feathers.for awhile.I could use the rest."  
* * *  
Elsewhere, on the Grim Wreaker, namely, Hacker, Buzz and Delete, after a few hours of working, had finally cleaned up the mess that they had made last night while watching the clips. Shortly after he had choked on his popcorn Buzz had ended up getting quite a few of the kernels lodged in the couch cushions; Hacker, being a neat freak, made him dig through the couch and pull them out.along with a few snalfoos and an old stick of gum.Buzz didn't know where that had come from; he didn't chew gum. Shrugging, he tossed the stick aside, then finally climbed down from the couch, dusting his hands off.  
"Bout time," he sighed to himself, "Although I gotta admit 'dat was fun."  
Delete, still feeling very heavy from last night, looked up at him sadly, then sighed and walked off down the hallway. Buzz stared after him, starting to feel concerned, then finally shook his head and took his seat atop the now spotless couch, staring down the hallway almost dumbly.  
"Man, he's been in a funk ever since yesterday," he said to himself, leaning against the side of the couch. "Wonder what he's so worked up about.I mean, it's not exactly like he knows 'da kid personally or anything.someone's gotta snap him out of it, quick."  
"I believe I know a way to fix that," a voice replied from behind him. Buzz jumped in surprise, then whipped around in time to see Hacker, who had been standing next to the couch and had apparently heard every word that had been spoken.  
"Huh?" Buzz replied, still rather confused. Hacker grinned, showing most of his teeth.  
"Buzzie, my boy, it's time for the 'Net phase of the plan to begin," Hacker replied, patting Buzz on the head falsely. Buzz cringed as Hacker touched him, then looked back up at him uneasily and rubbed his head where his boss had patted it. "We need to retrieve the girl, and soon."  
Delete, meanwhile, had snapped out of his funk, putting responsibility ahead of his sadness.that, and he didn't want to disobey his boss's orders. Thinking that he should probably go back and help Buzz move the couch back into the trophy room, he had turned around and had come back down the hallway.just in time to hear their conversation. And, needless to say, he didn't like what they were saying one bit.  
"What about Deeds?" he heard Buzz ask. He then heard Hacker laugh one- sidedly.  
"Ha, never mind him," he heard his boss reply. "It's clear that this situation is clouding his judgment; there's nothing that he can do if this continues. Just do what I told you before, and everything will work out just fine. Get my drift?"  
"You got it, boss," Buzz agreed; he then jumped down from the couch and began to run off into a different hallway. Delete, meanwhile, having overheard and clearly understood every word that had been spoken, turned around and angrily stormed off in the other direction, actually beginning to get angry for one of the very few times in his life.  
* * *  
A few moments later, Buzz was in the driver's seat in one of Hacker's smaller ships, heading in the direction of Control Central. Looking out the front window, almost feeling a little sorry for the kid.and Delete, at that. Trying to shake it off-he couldn't think this, he was a loyal follower to Hacker-he parked the car to one side of the main building, then slowly crept out and began to slink off along the edge of the wall. It wasn't long before he came to the window of what he knew, by watching the clips the night before, was Nezzie's room.  
Easily managing to slide the glass pane open, he squeezed in through the window and fell to the ground, only to see Nezzie on the floor, playing with a couple of toy horses and babbling joyously to herself.  
"An' then the horsy goes 'neigh'! An' eats some gwass, an' the udder horse goes-" She stopped when she heard Buzz hit the floor, then turned around and looked up at him. However, she didn't appear frightened of him at all; in fact, she seemed almost happy to see him. "Oh, hi, Uncle Buzzie," she said, waving at him gently.  
Buzz stopped, then narrowed one eye, out of disturbance more than confusion. "Uncle Buzzie.?" he repeated, suddenly feeling very awkward in this situation.  
Nezzie didn't seem to notice, however. "Wanna play?" she asked, anxiously approaching the shorter robot, who drummed his fingers together nervously, trying to think of what to do in this situation. Finally managing a weak smile, he shrugged one shoulder.  
"Uh, sure kid," he replied.  
"Great!" Nezzie said. "Let's play horsey wide."  
"Horsey wide?" Buzz stared at her oddly, then, finally realizing what she was getting at, held up his hands in defense and was about to object, but no sooner had he opened his mouth than had Nezzie leapt onto his back, grabbing a tight hold on both of Buzz's antennae in the process.  
"Yay!" Nezzie cheered as she kicked both of her feet up, thus placing all of her body weight on Buzz's antennae in the process. "Horsey wide! Horsey wide!"  
Buzz tried to get her to let go of his antennae, but his results proved unsuccessful. "No, Nezzie," he scolded, trying to reason with her, "Buzz doesn't want to be-OW!" He shrieked in pain as all of her weight went to his head. "Owowowowow! #@*&$!!! OWW!"  
Nezzie jumped off, laughing at what her uncle had just said. "That's a funny word," she stated, obviously referring to Buzz's recent show of profanity. "What's it mean?"  
Buzz, meanwhile, was gingerly rubbing his antennae, trying to get the pain to fade, then, realizing his slippage, grinned weakly again and shook his head. "Uh, heh, it's a fancy word," he replied. "Just never mind, it's not important." He sighed, then rubbed at one of his wrists. "And I ain't 'dat wide, ya know."  
Nezzie blinked. Buzz sighed, then said, heading back toward the window, "Say, how's about we go for a real ride, now?" He leapt up onto the windowsill. "Come on, I'll show you how it's really done now." "'Kay," Nezzie replied; Buzz then reached down to pick up the girl and get her onto the windowsill, almost falling off the sill himself due to the contrast of his and her sizes. He growled in annoyance. Four years old, just four years old, and she was half a foot taller than him. Trying to ignore this (although it was rather hard considering that she was keeping pretty close to him the whole time), Buzz left through the window and began to head back down the wall, Nezzie following him close behind. They approached the area where Buzz had parked the ship.only to run into Delete, his hands at his sides, not looking at all pleased. Buzz stopped dead. "Delete?" he exclaimed, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Mommy!" Nezzie exclaimed happily, running over to Delete. Delete, happy to see her but not so happy to see his older brother, quickly picked her up, then nuzzled her with his cheek before glaring at Buzz. "How-how'd you-I mean-" Buzz unintelligibly stuttered, pointing off toward the side. Delete's eyes narrowed further, and Nezzie, sensing that her mother was mad, buried her head in his shirt. "Buzz, just what the heck do you think you're doin'?!" Delete demanded. Buzz looked at him, then, knowing that he had to keep his ground-he was the older brother, after all, backed up a few steps, then slowly shook his head. "Relax, Dee-Dee," he panted, looking his angry brother in the eye. "I wasn't gonna hurt her, honest." Delete made no response, but continued to shoot that poisonous look at him, as Buzz continued, "I was just following orders, you know 'dat. Da boss has just got a plan with her in it, 'dat's all. I ain't gonna hurt her. Honestly, I ain't." Delete was about to mouth off his response when Matt, Jackie, and Inez, having entered the room and finding Nezzie gone, came running out. Matt was the first one to notice that Buzz and Delete were standing there, face to face, along with Nezzie being held gingerly in one of Delete's arms. "HEY!" he shouted angrily, provoking the attention of them both and thus breaking their vengeful eye contact with each other. Buzz, instead of reacting in surprise, grinned, almost coldly. "Perfect timing, 'da kid's going for a ride with us," he told the kids, leaning to one side and crossing his arms. "If youse want her back, go get 'dat jewel you took from us 'da other day, and follow me in one of your Coupes." "Why you little-!" Matt began, but Buzz caught the insult immediately. "Repeat 'dat!" he shouted back, angrily pointing at the redhead. "I dare you!" "Oh, man, not again," Jackie sighed, smacking her forehead; she then lunged forward and grabbed Matt just as he was about to charge Buzz. "Hold it, Matt," she told him, shaking her head. "We can't go near him, not while he's got Nezzie." Matt growled and gritted his teeth, leering in Buzz's direction, but said nothing. Buzz responded by smirking at him, then sticking his tongue out at the boy. "Relax," he told him, using his most casual voice tone possible as so to taunt him further. "She won't get hurt, not so long as you follow my orders. Just get 'da jewel, and follow me. 'Dat simple." Delete leered down at Buzz; he looked just about ready to take Matt's place. "Is that what this is all about?" he demanded angrily. "Just getting that stupid jewel?!" "Look, I don't got time to argue with you right now," Buzz replied. "Just come on." Delete continued to leer coldly at him, but spoke no response. Buzz turned around, then began to head back toward the car, Delete following, still holding Nezzie in his arms. Except, despite the fact that he had his child back, he wasn't very happy with the situation at all. Nezzie sensed this, too, and she looked up at her mother, concerned. "Mommy?" she asked nervously. Delete looked down at her, then gave her a gentle hug before stroking her hair, speaking gently. "It's alright," he told her. "Mommy's just very annoyed at your uncle right now, is all. You'll be okay. I promise." Nezzie whimpered, then laid her head against the robot's chest, still visibly quaking. Delete sighed, then, deciding that her consoling was best settled later, stepped into the passenger's side of the car and slammed the door shut. Buzz then lifted off, heading off in the direction of the jungle cybersite. Inez, meanwhile, had gone to get the jewel from Dr. Marbles, and she had just come back out into the open when she saw their ship leaving. Jackie, now deciding that it was okay to let go of Matt now that Buzz was out of sight, released her grip from the boy and went over toward Inez. "I've got it," the Latino informed them, holding up the jewel. "Now all we've got to do is get them." "Okay, fine," Matt replied, still in a huff. "Come on, let's follow them." He turned around, then ran toward Digit, who had managed to get a Coupe out of the main landing area. Quickly slipping into the back seats and passenger's seat, Digit ignited, and the other ship shot off in pursuit of Buzz and Delete's ship. Sure enough, Buzz had led the Cybersquad back into the jungle site, where Hacker, of course, was waiting for them in the Grim Wreaker. Grinning as he watched Buzz and Delete's ship head across the monitor, followed closely by the kids', he clasped his hands together and rubbed them together delightfully. "Ha, I finally win for once," he laughed, then pressed the button on the ship's control panel that opened up the Wreaker's platform. The two ships quickly flew in, then landed, just as the platform slid shut behind them. The kids, along with Buzz and Delete, got out just as Hacker walked into the room. Delete, who had released his grip on Nezzie since they had gotten into the Coupe, now looked at Buzz in shock as he tugged the girl out of the ship and hoisted her up as much as he could off the ground. "I got her, boss," the stocky robot declared. Delete's eyes flashed with anger. "Hold it," he snapped, then, in a sudden movement, snatched the toddler out of Buzz's hands. Buzz jumped in shock, then looked over at Delete and glared angrily at him. "Delete, just what do you think you're doin'?" he demanded. "Y-you can't use her like that," Delete replied angrily, although his voice was obviously coming close to breaking. "Y-you can't!" Buzz rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on," he objected. "No way, Buzz," Delete snapped at him, holding Nezzie out of his reach. "You're not gonna get her, and that's final. I don't care what you're doin', I don't want her used like this." He set her down, as far away from Buzz as he could get her. "An' if you want to use her, you're gonna have to pry her from my dead, cold hands." "Okay, okay, 'dat's a little harsh, don't you think?" Buzz told him, raising an eyebrow. "It's not any more harsh than what you're doin' right now!" Delete snapped back. "Oh, shut up!" Buzz snapped back, angrily thrusting his fists down at his sides. "Just what do you know about evil plans anyway?" Nezzie, meanwhile, was becoming nervous from the two's conversation and was slowly inching away from them, her hand to her mouth, staring at them fearfully the entire time. Finally, she turned around, then began to head toward the direction of the computer monitors as Inez set the jewel down on the shelf, then turned around in time to watch Buzz and Delete's arguing reach its climax. Angrily, Buzz shot out and shoved Delete with all the force he had, but Delete reacted quickly and shoved back the moment that his hands made contact. The two both lost their balance and fell backward, Delete landing hard against the control panel, pressing quite a lot of the buttons on there in the process. Nezzie, meanwhile, had ignored these physical blows and had now turned all her interest over to the jewel. She had now picked it up and was looking at it, obviously interested in its incredible shininess. "Pretty," she said, her eyes wide as she stared at her reflection. However, moments after she said this the lower hatch opened. Since Nezzie was standing on top of it at the time, of course she fell directly through it. She let out a high pitched shriek of terror; this screaming caught Inez's attention, and she whipped around in time to see the girl disappear down the hatch. "Nezzie!" she shouted fearfully, then immediately made a dive for the girl, managing to catch her by the hand just in time. Both of them sighing in relief, Inez placed both hands around Nezzie's waist and was just about to lift her back up into the main control room when the engines kicked in, sending the ship out of control, flying around in all directions, now. "Whoa!" the girl exclaimed, then noticed, to her horror, that she was beginning to slip through the hatch as well. Delete had removed himself from the panel and was gritting his teeth, about to lunge at Buzz again, when he noticed Inez. Emitting a yelp of terror, he too dove forward, and managed to snag onto her leg. However, due to the monstrous air pressure the three immediately got sucked out. Delete just barely managed to extend his arm and seize the edge of the ramp. It wasn't a good grip, and he wasn't sure that he could hold on very well, however. Jackie, Digit, and Buzz, having seen the entire thing, quickly ran over to the edge of the ramp. Delete looked up at the three, his eyes filled with panic, but he could now see that Buzz had brought both hands to his mouth, and his eyes had become fearful. "Delete!" he called out, and although he was trying to hide it the taller robot knew that his voice was breaking. Delete whimpered at this show of affection, but quickly remembered that he was the only thing supporting the two girls, and thus concentrated back on keeping a firm hold. Matt, meanwhile, being the only one who wasn't occupied, quickly dove for the controls, trying everything to get the ship to fly right. When it refused all his commands and continued to careen out of control, Matt groaned, then said, bringing both hands to his head, "Oh man, how do I stabilize this thing?!" Buzz turned around. "Push 'da green button!" he called over to the boy. Matt looked at him, then nodded and chose the button nearest to him, pressing it quickly. However, instead of stopping the ship flipped upside down, nearly bucking the three-Nezzie, Inez, and Delete-off in the process. "Yipe!" Delete yelped as the three struck the bottom of the Grim Wreaker's metal surface. Inez looked over at the open part of the ramp. "What are they doing up there?" she wondered aloud, tightening her grip on her daughter's waist. Matt, meanwhile, hanging on for dear life to the edge of Hacker's Recharger Chair, quickly reached out and pushed the button again, and the ship flipped back into its original position, sending the boy to the ground. "I meant 'da other green button!" Buzz snapped at him, heatedly. Matt rolled his eyes. "Now you tell me," he sighed, slumping against the panel and slapping his forehead. "Well, we've gotta do something, quick!" Jackie told the two, frantically. "If we don't do something soon, oh man, I don't even want to think about what'll-" Buzz sighed, then looked over toward the far end of the wall, where he finally spotted one of the old grappling hooks hung up on the wall. They rarely used it in such cases, only in emergencies, if he could plainly recall, but considering the circumstances now. "Get 'da grappling hook," he ordered, pointing in the direction of the tool. Matt, deciding that agreeing with him would be better than starting another brawl, quickly ran over and got one of the grappling hooks, while Jackie took the hook off of it. She then sighed in disgust, then jammed it up into her shirt, so that the sharp ends of the hooks went through the cloth in her shirt. "I am so going to regret doing that tomorrow," she sighed, looking down at her shirt; she then ran over toward the open hatch. "Hang on tight, you guys," she told the others. Buzz and Digit nodded, then took hold of the rope, while Matt turned around and ran back over toward the control panel. Delete, meanwhile, wasn't having so much luck. His fingers were slipping, one by one, and he was pretty sure that they would plummet to the ground before anyone could get to them in time. Whimpering, he tried one last frantic attempt to pull himself up, but ended up failing miserably. "I-don't think I can-hold on much-longer," he groaned, struggling to regain his grip, but it was hopeless. Just as his fingers slipped from the edge of the platform, Jackie swung down on the hook and caught him. "Alright!" she exclaimed. "Jumpin' Jax has still got it!" Inez and Delete looked up at her, but decided that now wasn't the best time to comment on this situation. Matt and Hacker, meanwhile, were on the other side of the control room, heatedly fighting over the controls. And by the looks of it, Matt seemed to be the one winning. "Give me that!" Hacker exclaimed angrily, reaching for the controls, but Matt held him back. "Fat chance," he replied. "Uh, boss," Buzz called from across the room, straining from Jackie's weight, "Dis might be a good time to-" "What?" Hacker snapped at him. Buzz swallowed, then pointed at the monitor behind him. "Look," he replied, sounding rather blank as he momentarily released one hand from the rope and pointed past his boss, directly at the screen. Hacker stared at him for a few moments, then finally turned around and looked at the monitor himself, only to find out that the ship had finally decided on one direction and was now heading directly for the peak of a mountain. Inez, spotting the landmark at once, started screaming, while Matt jumped forward, grabbed the control stick, and began pulling backward, desperately trying to get the ship to go up. "Oh, man, guys," he said, sounding rather fearful as he eyed the mountain, "I don't know if we're gonna make it!" Hacker was not fazed. "Give me that!" he repeated, then grabbed the controls along with Matt, and began pulling back as well. Between the two of them, the ship slowly, but surely, began moving up. The two managed to get it at a good elevation the moment they passed the mountains, the four out on the grappling hook barely managing to make it. Jackie yelped, trying not to loosen her hold on Delete, then looked back at the mountains as they began to shrink behind her. "Oh man, that was too close," she sighed, relieved. That was when the alarm went off. "Now what?" Matt sighed, slumping forward onto the control panel. "Oh, great, we're running out of fuel!" Buzz exclaimed in a panic. "We're gonna crash!" "Great, just great, I needed that," Matt groaned; he then looked up at the monitor in time to see a small clearing up ahead. "Wait, wait a minute, I see a clearing in sight. Only problem is, can we make it there in time, or will we experience-" He swallowed. "The alternative?" Hacker laughed. "Ha! Just watch, you insolent brat." Then, with a sweep of his hand, he managed to level the ship off, just in the nick of time. Of course, this almost sent Jackie, along with Delete, Inez, and Nezzie, smashing onto the bottom of the Wreaker. Thankfully, they didn't. "Wow," Delete exclaimed, not sure whether to be impressed or frightened, "This is turning into a real interesting day." That was when the clearing came into full view. Jackie looked over at it, then shook her head. "What? Oh, come on. You've got to be kidding me." "Now what?" Inez wondered, but that was when she noticed that the Grim Wreaker was now quickly descending, heading for a very familiar looking mud pit. Matt, inside the ship, looked up at the monitor and saw this as well. "Oh, come on," he repeated, shaking his head. Before anyone else could speak up, the ship crashed directly into the mud, dragging Delete and the others outside the Wreaker at the moment down with it (much to Jackie's disgust). Mud flew out at all angles, and Matt had enough sense to duck, but Hacker went flying through the window, landing directly in the mud. Delete, Inez, Nezzie and Jackie, now covered head to toe in the stuff yet again, sat up. "Ugh, not again!" Jackie shouted, sounding like she didn't want to believe it. "Could someone please tell me why stuff like this keeping happening to us?!" Buzz and Matt then ran out of the ship, Buzz in the lead, with Digit following behind them in flight. "Delete?" Buzz called out, then, finally sighting his brother out in the pile of mud, ran toward him and, with a loud yelp of "Delete!", threw himself into his brother's arms. "Gad, I'm so sorry." He sadly shook his head. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like 'dat." "Aw, that's alright," Delete replied, hugging him back and getting mud all over him in the process. "No harm done, really, Buzzie." He looked around. "Well, unless you don't count all this mud we're in right now." It was then that Hacker, who had had his head buried in the mud, finally pulled himself upright, then, looking around, finally wailed, "No, not again, this can't be happening again!" He then started bawling like a baby. Nezzie, who was watching him, giggled, then gently pushed her father on the shoulder and pointed at Hacker. "He's funny," she informed her. Inez stared at her for a moment, then looked back at Delete. "Delete, what did you put in that egg?" she asked him, raising her eyebrow in confusion.  
* * *  
Later on, everyone had finally managed to dislodge themselves from the mud, and Hacker was standing in front of the kids, now scowling even more than usual. Inez was the one standing directly in front of him, her hands at her sides and a serious expression on her face.  
"So, we're agreed?" she finally finished. Hacker groaned in defeat, then reluctantly nodded.  
"Fine, Delete can see the girl sometimes, and I won't try to use her in any more schemes." He then crossed his arms and looked over toward the Wreaker, still half-buried in the stuff. He began walking toward his ship in a huff. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go dig my ship out of the mud."  
As soon as Hacker had left, Delete slowly walked up to Inez and Nezzie. Standing directly beside her, Delete shuffled his foot along the ground, then finally said, rather quietly to the girl, "Uh, Inez.can I ask you somethin'?"  
Inez looked at him. "Huh?"  
Delete leaned over toward her and whispered something in her ear. Inez's eyes grew wide, and she drew back, still looking like she had no idea what was going on. "Excuse me?" she said.  
"Why not?" Delete asked. "It'd be good for Nezzie, wouldn't it?"  
Inez looked at Delete, then finally looked down at their daughter, then sighed. "Yes, I suppose," she finally agreed, nodding her head. "It's the least we can do for her, anyway. I mean, technically she is our daughter, after all."  
Delete nodded. "She is," he agreed. "She is."  
* * *  
A few hours later, after they had managed to get the mud off of themselves, Delete, Inez and Nezzie walked along through the forest, Delete and Inez each holding Nezzie's hand. They both were smiling, taking in their surroundings, then continued to walk along the path until they finally stopped at their destination, a pond very similar to the one Delete had seen in his dream.  
Inez picked up Nezzie, then took her over to the edge of the pond to play. Delete, meanwhile, found a tree nearby the pond and, sitting down, stretched himself out against it, his hands behind his back. He looked out at the two, then smiled.  
"It's not exactly my dream, but it'll do," he sighed; then he looked up at the tree and closed his eyes, hoping that he would feel Inez's touch soon, if only in his dreams. 


End file.
